by Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
A California mom’s lawsuit against the school district that helped her daughter identify as a boy without her knowledge could block the enforcement of a new California law that mandates schools hide students’ so-called gender identities from parents.
The Center for American Liberty first filed a lawsuit against Chico Unified School District in January 2023 on behalf of Aurora Regino, whose 11-year-old daughter “socially transitioned” at school and started identifying as male. The district has what the lawsuit calls a “Parental Secrecy Policy,” requiring Chico schools to socially transition students upon their request, regardless of parental support and without consent.
The district court dismissed the case, and the Center for American Liberty, a free speech nonprofit, appealed the case to the federal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where it is currently pending.
In mid-July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed Assembly Bill 1955, which barred school districts from requiring that parents be informed of their child’s gender identity. The law overrides any local school board policies that require transparency with parents about their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The center filed a letter in the 9th Circuit on Aug. 15, explaining how Assembly Bill 1955 would affect the case.
According to the organization, AB 1955 has no impact on Regino’s case, because the mother seeks a court declaration that the district’s Parental Secrecy Policy violates the Constitution as well as an injunction against the Chico policy’s continued application of the policy.
“The Parental Secrecy Policy is not a mandatory parental disclosure policy of the type targeted by AB 1955,” the letter shared with The Daily Signal reads. “Instead, the Parental Secrecy Policy provides the opposite—it requires schools to socially transition students upon their request, and it generally requires school personnel to conceal the social transition from the student’s parents.”
Even if AB 1955 were inconsistent with Regino’s argument, AB 1955 would be unconstitutional just as the Parental Secrecy Policy is also unconstitutional, the letter says.
“Again, a public school’s failure to (at least) notify parents before socially transitioning their children violates parents’ federal constitutional rights,” according to the letter.
During a time of intense stress in which Aurora Regino’s father had died and she was battling breast cancer, her elementary school-age daughter sought help from a school “mental wellness” counselor, Regino said at an April 5 school board meeting.
Regino said that her daughter told the counselor that she wanted to tell her mother about the counseling sessions and her struggles with her sexual identity—but the counselor ignored her. Because Chico Unified kept her daughter’s struggles and mental health crisis from her, her daughter was left to face bullying and other trauma alone, Regino said.
Parents should be responsible for decisions affecting their children, not schools, according to Eric Sell, associate counsel at the Center for American Liberty.
“The California politicians who supported AB 1955 might think it’s OK for schools to transition children to a different gender behind their parents’ backs, but the experts who understand the science behind social transitioning disagree,” Sell told The Daily Signal. “If the 9th Circuit sides with our client Aurora, AB 1955 will effectively be unenforceable against parents.”
“We are hopeful the court will do so given the extensive scientific evidence available that shows how dangerous it is for a school to facilitate a child’s transition to a different gender identity in secret,” Sell continued.
Chico Unified School District did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. This report will be edited if the district responds.
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Elizabeth (Troutman) Mitchell is a reporting fellow for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Daily Signal Podcast.” Send her an email.
Photo “Chino Unified School District” by Chico Unified Human Resources.
Photo “Aurora Regino” by Center For American Liberty. Background Photo “Chino Unified School District” by Chico Unified Human Resources.
