Assemblyman Chris Ward (Photo: lgbtqcaucus.legislature.ca)
Schools Brace For New Law Prohibiting Notifying Parents of Students Pronoun Change
New law will be effective January 1st
By Evan Symon, December 14, 2024 8:14 am
Schools across California have continued to scramble this month to be prepared for a new law coming into effect on January 1st that prohibits school districts from allowing teachers to notify parents if their child is using a new pronoun at school.
Assembly Bill 1955, by Assemblyman Chris Ward (D-San Diego), prohibits school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools, and a member of the governing board or body of those educational entities, from enacting or enforcing any policy or rule that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law. The law, also known as the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY Act), also prohibits employees or contractors of those educational entities from being required to make such a disclosure unless otherwise required by law.
In addition, AB 1955 prohibits employees or contractors of school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, or the state special schools, or members of the governing boards or bodies of those educational entities, from retaliating or taking adverse action against an employee on the basis that the employee supported a pupil in the exercise of specified rights, work activities, or providing certain instruction. The State Department of education is also required to develop resources or update existing resources for supports and community resources for the support of parents, guardians, and families of LGBTQ pupils and strategies to increase support for LGBTQ pupils under the law.
Assemblyman Ward wrote the bill in conjunction with the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus earlier this year in response to more and more school districts in California proposing or passing policies requiring teachers to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender or asks to be identified by a different name or pronouns while at school. In a statement earlier this year, they said that those measures have had a measurable impact on the mental health of LGBTQ+ students, and can lead to a rise in bullying, harassment, and discrimination. Many also pushed for the bill explaining that LGBTQ students had the right to come out to their parents on their own terms and not through a school notification.
The bill subsequently passed both houses in June, and Governor Newsom signed the bill into law in July. His early signing of the bill gave schools an extra few months to prepare for the change over. In particular, many districts attempted to shut down alternative ways that parents could find out about pronouns changes rather than directly from the school.
However, with the law due to come into effect when students get back from winter break, schools have instead focused on having employees not reveal that information to parents and guardians.
An easily circumvented law
“It’s not as simple as having a meeting and saying ‘Don’t do it,'” school counselor, “Amanda,” told the Globe. “You know, we need the students permission to make that available, go over the consequences, go over situations where this might happen, and so on.
“And here’s the thing we found out and what other districts are finding out: This law will do nothing. We did test situations with other counselors and quickly found that parents can easily find this out on their own. Social media, for one, would ‘out’ most students pretty quickly. And even if the students are more secretive, there are so many non-school ways for them to find out about their pronouns. A district next to ours had a track meet where a volunteer, non-employee coach used their preferred pronoun, saying something like ‘They hustled pretty good’ right to their parents alerting them of the pronoun. If parents are close to their child, they’ll find out quick.”
Another counselor the Globe talked with added that “AB 1955 is just, best case scenario, going to delay the parent finding out. Oh, and just by saying ‘We can’t tell you that’, a lot of parents, will found out find out anyway. Like, they ask ‘Is my son going by she now?’ and we say ‘We cannot disclose that.’ it just confirms for them it’s true. We actually had someone from a district down in LA County tell us say that, when they told them “We can’t tell you that”, the parent on the other line said “I KNEW it. Thanks for confirming it for me.” and then they hung up before anything else could be said. By denying information, it accidently discloses the truth. That’s a huge issue, and that’s why AB 1955 won’t work at all.
“We had a workshop last week on this, and every single teacher said to the face of the person running it ‘There is no way this will work.'”
AB 1955 goes into effect January 1, 2025.
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Common sense parents who care about the future of their kids should avoid California public schools at all costs which have become nothing but worthless Marxist indoctrination camps after years of criminal Democrat mafia control over the state.
With you, TJ —- that is definitely the first line of attack.
Although it may be true that this law — -AB 1955 — is somewhat “useless” because there are so many other ways of finding out what is going on with your grade school child when ridiculous public school employees have been ordered to be silent on the subject, it’s the idea that HIDING this information is what the public schools WANTED TO DO that is ominous, scary, and enraging.
I still think a significant chunk of public school staff and leadership think of their students as fodder for the transgender grinder mill, especially largest-district-in-the-country LAUSD, and the laws that have recently been passed by the evil idiots of CA’s Dem Marxist legislature (and signed by Gruesome) can easily be put together, like puzzle pieces, to arguably show that the transgender activists employed by the schools (as well as those outside of the schools), have as their goal to target, brainwash, and ultimately funnel, via the fast track, vulnerable young students to their apparent villainous partner, the TransYouth Center at L.A. Children’s Hospital. They might as well gather them up and ship them to Children’s Hospital in containers.
Nothing I have learned since those laws were passed by our legislature and signed by our cruel and sadistic governor has discouraged me from thinking that this is exactly what these freaks intend to do with students they apparently consider lab rats for unspeakable experimentation; namely, with bathtubs full of cross-sex hormone dosage and performance of irreversible mutilating genital surgery. On minor-age children.
We must shut this machine down, as soon as possible.
My wife home-schooled our son through middle school. He is now married, owns a house, has a good job, and is a productive member of society. Since we were a single income family, we were at a disadvantage financially and always bought used cars and often skipped vacations away from home, but these were the sacrifices we needed to make. It all turned out well in the end, but our daughter got jipped a little bit.
For anyone who is interested in doing what Nofearmfd’s family did, below is a good website to explore for ideas on how to get started and perhaps escape the public school system.
“Rescue Your Child”
https://rescueyourchild.com/home
This website is a good resource on the crimes being committed by our schools against children. The one thing the website doesn’t mention is that home schooling families get together and home school each other’s kids, so it takes some of the pressure off. There are also Charter Schools that have a combination of in-classroom and home schooling.
The education system in California has been sabotaged by the Democrats, and a complete failure. Don’t let your kids’ future be sabotaged.
Thank you for adding that, Protect Freedom.
My own neighborhood has all but turned into S.F. so I can’t imagine the shared home schooling here but I’m sure there are plenty of places remaining in the state where that could and does happen. Not THAT many years ago I counted 17 children under 10 years old in the neighborhood, out running around, riding bikes, playing sports, etc.— so heartening. As more and more govt and nonprofit types have moved in over the years, now there are only three kids on our street. Who rarely go outside.
By the way, as I have a feeling you know already, it is my understanding that homeschooling is nowhere NEAR as onerous, difficult, or time-consuming as people tend to think it will be before they do it. Maybe knowing that will encourage more parents.
So … how are the parents supposed to know the *proper* way to address their own kid, if nobody tells them?
Can’t have parents *dead naming* their own children. Just think of all the damage that will cause.
So how many kids running into the new school year with new pronouns to use…..?
I don’t think there are very many……. if there are any at all.
NO, they only COME OUT of the school with new pronouns. Outrageous
Let me get this straight…School administrator’s know the new law is useless and ineffective, because there are many other ways to find out the truth, like social media or an actual denial of info from the school. But the law was enacted anyway.
It sounds like the real “purpose” of the law is not to protect kids, but to protect school districts, administrators, and teachers from lawsuits when they give these vulnerable kids over to the highly profitable drug companies and surgical community that supports the trans movement. What a crying shame.
The Democrats need to stop glamorizing and promoting gender dysphoria. It’s a DSM-5 mental illness, and should be treated accordingly. The percentage of youth who identify as transgender has doubled in five years according to a 2022 study. This is obviously not a natural condition, but the result of grooming. These Democrats are sick people.
Take your kids out of government schools. Home school or send them to a trustworthy private school. The only way to avoid a lawless government.
Chris Ward must be very proud of this most important piece of legislation he rammed through the assembly. I was very concerned about the status of pronouns in our public schools system.. But now, thanks to Chris, I will be able to get a good nights sleep once again.. Maybe now that he’s saved the pronouns he could move on to fixing some of the other less important problems our state is facing like our decaying water infrastructure, or repairing our third world roads. Wouldn’t it be nice if Chris and his fellow legislators actually did something that benefited everyone who lives in this state and pay taxes. Just wishful thinking, I know…
This whole law is just one big virtue signal. It doesn’t prevent teachers from informing parents voluntarily if they wished to. A teacher has every right to (and really, responsibility to) inform parents of important matters that involve their children. But it does show just how anti-parent and anti-children the Democrat party has become. If we were to poll California voters on if they were for or against this law, the result would be 70%+ against. The problem is, most California voters are so out of touch that they have no idea this law was even passed.
This bill only prohibits policies requiring teachers to tell parents about a pronoun change. It does not prohibit a teacher from telling a parent. You got the facts wrong. The second paragraph of the story is correct but the first paragraph and the headline is wrong. Please correct it.