California school district rescinds transgender notification policy
The Murrieta Valley school board has rescinded its controversial policy to notify parents if a student is transgender.
In a 3-2 vote, board President Paul Diffley and members Linda Lunn and Nancy Young voted last month to revoke the rule, while trustees Nick Pardue and Julie Vandegrift voted to keep it.
Adopted in August 2023, the policy required schools to inform parents within three days if their child identified as transgender, looked into gender-affirming facilities or tried to change their names or pronouns.
In an Oct. 10 letter to the public included in the board agenda for that night’s meeting, Murrieta Valley Unified School District officials said they had not implemented the policy.
During the Oct. 10 meeting, Pardue said the policy had come to the board’s attention three times and that occurred because the board is trying to be transparent.
After the board approved the rule in 2023, it came back the following year for a second vote in March and was kept on the books after the district received a letter from the state calling upon it to stop enforcing the policy. The policy passed again in April on a 3-2 vote, with Pardue, Diffley and Vandegrift voting in favor.
Diffley and Pardue had originally proposed the policy.
“I am a firm believer and I believe in the Constitution,” Pardue said in the Oct. 10 meeting. “I believe these parents’ rights will hold up in court.”
Pardue, who was endorsed in 2022 by the conservative Inland Empire Family PAC, was referring to a lawsuit filed by the Chino Valley Unified School District and others against the state after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1955. The law prevents school districts from creating and implementing parent notification polices.
In August, the Murrieta school board decided not to join Chino Valley’s lawsuit against the law.
Vandegrift also stood by the rule and restated the timeline of the policy and explained what she considered to be its importance.
Speakers at the meeting were split on the issue, with parents and teachers on both sides critiquing the district. Those in favor of rescinding the policy said is was not needed and that there was not a violation of parents’ rights. Those who support it said that good comes when parents are involved in and informed about their children’s lives.
“As a parent in Murrieta in the last 10 years, I have never felt once that I didn’t have rights as a parent and I have never felt like my students didn’t have rights,” Rachael Heida, a teacher and parent in the district, told the board.
Jeremy Murphy, a district parent, asked trustees: “What is it about giving a student autonomy that they have issue with?”
He also said the policy was part of “teaching them to be human.”
John Leonard, a community member, said the district was being bullied by Sacramento and the teacher’s union.
“Don’t fear the law,” Leonard said. “Use it to your advantage and fight back.”