Federal Judge Strips California Schools of Ban on Notifying Parents of Child’s Gender Transition

Joe diGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and Victoria Toensing, a former senior official at the Department of Justice, stated on Tuesday they support a federal judge’s ruling that struck down California’s policy preventing schools from informing parents when students express a desire to transition gender.

The ruling followed a federal court decision in favor of parents and educators who challenged a California public school policy that barred staff from notifying parents when a student asked to use different pronouns or a different gender identity.

In his order, Judge Roger Benitez wrote: “Parental involvement is essential to the healthy maturation of schoolchildren.”

The judge further noted: “California’s public school system parental exclusion policies place a communication barrier between parents and teachers.”

Benitez added that the state defendants were effectively asking this court to limit what he described as “a common-sense and legally sound description by the United States Supreme Court of parental rights,” stating, “This court will not do” that.

During an interview on “The Chris Salcedo Show,” Toensing criticized California’s law as evidence of a left-wing effort to erode the nuclear family. She said: “The Supreme Court has said children are not a creature of the state.”

Toensing added: “California based this on the right to privacy, which is in their constitution. But the Supreme Court says parents have a right to know about their children—that’s why it failed.”

Benitez will issue a permanent injunction preventing California from enforcing the policy and blocking similar measures that keep parents out of the loop.