AB 1955 Becomes Law, Makes Waves in CA
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed radical new legislation AB 1955 into law. This law now prohibits school employees from disclosing any information related to a pupil’s gender identity, sexual orientation, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent.
AB 1955 dramatically infringes upon parental rights by making California the first state in the union to explicitly prohibit school policies that would require schools to notify parents when students request to use a different name or pronoun than what is on school records.
This new law completely undermines the safety of our students by dismissing the role parents are to play in the lives of their children. As a faith-based organization, dedicated to the support and protection of innocent human life, from conception to natural death, we believe that parents, and the protection of their rights, play an important role in the upbringing, rearing, success, and prosperity of children. This legislation violates that basic principle by excluding parents from essential aspects of the well-being of their child.
What makes this law even more dangerous is the disunity created between the school and the parents. As AB 1955 begins the breach of a relationship between both students and teachers as well as teachers and parents, there is no control of what might next be kept from parents with regard to student health. The fundamental argument that a parent does not have a right to know what is going on with or within their child is a breach of legal and moral precedent that cannot be undone.
We fear that this opens the door to potentially dangerous implications of students asking for and hiding surgeries, medical procedures, and everything up to and including abortions from their parents.
Legal challenges are already being mounted against the legislation by the Liberty Justice Center, citing the new law as a clear violation of the Constitution’s protection of parental rights. It should also be noted that previous legal challenges have created precedent for this argument.
A recent federal court decision, Mirabelli v. Olson, put on hold a school policy in Escondido that forced teachers to keep parents in the dark when it comes to students’ intentions to “change” genders and socially “transition” at school. Judge Roger Benetiz, in his order granting a preliminary injunction, underscored a main point regarding parental rights.
Judge Benetiz emphasized that parents have a fundamental constitutional right to be informed about significant aspects of their child's well-being, including issues related to gender identity. This right is deeply rooted in the liberty interests protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. As Judge Benetiz noted, “A parent's right to make decisions concerning the care, custody, control, and medical care of their children is one of the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests that Americans.
AB 1955 represents a very dangerous step forward into a realm where parents could be kept out of potentially dangerous and harmful decisions made by their children. The Right to Life League will keep you posted here on any further developments on the legal challenges this law faces.
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