In a marathon meeting, the Murrieta Valley school board approved a policy Thursday night, Aug. 10, to notify parents if their children identify as a gender that doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth.
The vote was 3-2, with board members Paul Diffley, Nick Pardue and Julie Vandegrift voting yes. Nancy Young and Linda Lunn voted no.
RELATED: Murrieta Valley school board could tell parents if their children are transgender
The proposal, from Diffley and Pardue, is based on a policy adopted 4-1 by the Chino Valley Unified School District last month during a contentious and emotional meeting. Chino Valley’s policy was included as an example in the Murrieta school board agenda packet.
The Murrieta Valley Unified School District policy requires that school staff notify parents or guardians within three days of learning that a student is “requesting to be identified or treated” as a gender other than the “biological sex or gender” listed on their birth certificate or other official records. Items warranting notification include student requests to use names, pronouns, sex-segregated programs such as athletic teams, or bathroom or changing facilities that don’t “align with the student’s biological sex or gender,” as well as requests to change information in their records.
The board’s vote was to adopt the same policy as Chino Valley’s, but change the name of the school district, Superintendent Ward Andrus said before the vote. District administrators will be drafting regulations to clarify the policy, he said.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced an investigation Aug. 4, into potential legal violations raised by Chino Valley’s rules. On Friday, Aug. 11, Bonta issued statement saying he was “deeply disturbed” by the Murrieta school board vote. His press office did not respond to a question Friday about whether Bonta might open an investigation into Murrieta schools’ policy.
State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond, who spoke against Chino Valley’s policy, sent a letter to the Murrieta Valley school board and superintendent Thursday, asking that the proposal be withdrawn.
Pardue, the board’s clerk, is one of five conservative Christians elected to southwest Riverside County school boards in November and was backed by a conservative PAC.
“It’s illegal,” Young said of the policy on Wednesday, Aug. 9. “It’s a violation of Ed Code and state law and discriminates.”
Young cited the risk of lawsuits or a civil rights investigation by the state, as well as the stress the policy would cause to transgender students, who she said have “a suicide rate that is four times the suicide rate” of other students. The Trevor Project cites studies supporting that statistic.
Murrieta resident Lane McKeever, who will soon have three grandchildren in Murrieta Valley schools, said before the meeting that she supports the proposed policy and is “opposed to teachers trying to take the place of parents.”
McKeever said her son struggled with depression while in school, and she was informed by a teacher.
“Parents get to know everything,” McKeever said.
About 60 people spoke at Thursday night’s meeting, most of them regarding the parental notification proposal, with roughly equal numbers supporting and opposing the idea. There was an overflow crowd, and about a dozen law enforcement officers standing by.
“The reality is, sex cannot be changed” said Chloe Cole, an activist and “former trans kid” who backs the proposal and said she identified as transgender from age 12 to 16.
Josefina Hartley spoke about a family friend’s teenage daughter, who would “dress like a boy,” first at school, and later at home. She said the girl’s grandmother intervened, and after months of talks, “saved” the granddaughter, who is “now a well-adjusted young girl.”
Tracy Nusbaum, president of the B’nai Chaim synagogue and a parent of four, spoke later.
“Unlike some of the things you have heard tonight, I am actually thrilled, and proud, and honored to have a transgender son,” said Nusbaum, who added that she treasures her nonbinary teenager as well.
Some people at the meeting have asked her son “what is in his pants,” and have called her a “predator” for raising her transgender child, Nusbaum said.
Alexandra Galeano spoke after her 12-year-old-daughter, both in opposition to the policy. Galeano said that if her child went to her teacher before her, “I would question, ‘What have I done wrong?’”
Robert Garcia, school board president in the Jurupa Unified School District in Riverside County, also spoke.
Garcia, a Navy veteran, said “the reason we served is so that everybody can have their freedom.”
“We get caught up in the politics and the personal agendas,” Garcia said. “I think we’re all better than that.”
He asked the school board to stand by the law and “move on.”
Several Murrieta Valley students and recent alums spoke.
Corinne Smith, 17, the senior class president at Murrieta Valley High School, referred to other school districts that have adopted similar policies and asked supporters: “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?”
“If students choose to talk to a trusted adult before their parents, it is for a reason,” she said.
“It isn’t by any means an attack, nor do we want it to be, on the LGBTQ community,” Diffley, the board president, said of the proposal.
“To me the importance of the bond between student and family, mother and father, is paramount,” he said, and it supersedes anything else in school. Diffley agreed that “there are some parents who may beat their kids, spank their kids, ignore their kids,” however, he said “the connection that is in this item is important.”
Pardue also acknowledged that possibility, but, referencing the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment about equal protection, he said that, just because certain parents may do something wrong, other parents’ rights shouldn’t be taken away.
“I can tell you, as a conservative teacher, I get plenty of all-of-a-sudden bad vibes from the world, because the world has gone crazy,” Pardue said. “We used to all get along, and just kind of have slight disagreements. Now all of a sudden, you’re just straight evil.”
Attorney Dina Harris discussed the proposed policy, including possible additions to strengthen it against litigation.
She mentioned a recent federal court decision from July 10, in which a parent alleged violation of constitutional rights against the Chico Unified School District’s regulation on gender identity. The case was dismissed because the court ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not mandate the right to be informed of a child’s gender identity and provide consent.
Shortly before the vote, Pardue said that passing the policy “sends a strong signal to the community that we stand with parental rights.”
Lunn disagreed, responding that passing the policy “sends a clear message to our students that they are not safe in our schools.”
