Outrage over California law BANNING parents from finding out when kids transition at school

Parents and activists have reacted furiously to a California law to help students change sex at school without their parents knowing about it, with one calling the Democrat-backed legislation a 'five alarm fire.'

Gov Gavin Newsom on Monday signed the first-in-the nation law, which blocks public school districts from requiring staff to notify parents when their children change the pronouns they use in class.

California parents told DailyMail.com the law would encourage more districts to implement their own secret sex change policies, and leave moms and dads unable to trust teachers and even consider switching to private schools.

Whether teachers should tell parents when their kids change sex at school has become a hot-button issue between progressives and conservatives, who say that parents should be kept in the loop about such an important decision.

'This is a five alarm fire ethically and legally because it excludes parents from knowing vital information about their own child's school records,' said Erika Sanzi, from the campaign group Parents Defending Education.

'If a school facilitates the gender transition of a minor without notifying parents, they are engaged in a psychosocial intervention without parental consent.'

The new law will override policies passed by less than a dozen California school boards in Republican-leaning pockets of California that required staff to inform parents about trans students.

Democratic state officials pushed for the law, saying students have a right to privacy, and that some LGBTQ+ students live in unwelcoming households and need protection from their own parents.

Trans activists say such guidelines are vital, as some kids need protection from old-fashioned moms and dads who won't accept their desire to change sex.

But for many parents, they are dangerous, and could deny them a chance to help their children as they struggle to navigate puberty.

A Rasmussen Reports poll last year found that 82 percent of California voters supported laws that required parents to be notified of major changes in a child's physical, mental, or emotional health or academic performance at school.   

Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Newsom, said the law 'helps keep children safe' while also allowing families to 'have deeply personal conversations' about children's gender identities.

But Jonathan Zachreson, an advocate of so-called parental notification policies, opposes the law and says telling parents about students' gender changes is 'critical to the well-being of children and for maintaining that trust between schools and parents.'

Wealthy moms and dads will move their children to private schools, he told DailyMail.com. Many others will look for charter schools that 'fly under the radar' and continue to notify parents, he added.

Others still will join the exodus of Californians leaving the Golden State, he added — which often means opting for lower Texas and more family-friendly policies in nearby Arizona and Texas.

Dr Erica Anderson, a male-to-female trans clinical psychologist, warned that California was on a dangerous 'slippery slope.'

'The California legislature decided that teachers know better than parents what is good for the children,' she posted on X.

'And that youth should be able to decide what parents know.'

States across the country have sought to impose bans on gender-affirming care for minors, bar transgender athletes from girls' and women's sports, and require schools to inform parents about their kids' trans or nonbinary status.

Some conservative lawmakers in other states have introduced bills with broad language requiring that parents are told of any changes to their child's emotional health or well-being.

The California law led to heated clashes in the state legislature, where LGBTQ+ lawmakers said minors should be able to decide what to tell their own parents, and others highlighted cases of schools trampling on parents rights.

California mom Jessica Konen last year settled a suit Spreckels Union School District for $100,000 after saying her daughter was 'socially transitioned' into a trans boy by her middle school.

Konen's daughter Alicia, 11, was allegedly told by Buena Vista Middle School in Spreckels that she was upset because she didn't know who she 'truly was inside.'

The school allowed the child to use the boys' bathroom and male pronouns in class without her mom's consent.

Single mom Konen accused teachers of encouraging her daughter to think she was a trans boy when she was at the school in 2019 – only for the child to return to her female persona while learning remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Konen's lawyer Harmeet Dhillon, CEO and founder of the Center for American Liberty, called the new law an 'outrageous attempt to keep parents in the dark while schools indoctrinate kids with radical gender ideology.' 

Earlier in 2023, a California high school history teacher revealed she had helped students change their gender at school without their parents' knowledge - and said it was necessary in some cases.

Olivia Garrison, an unabashedly progressive non-binary person, told the New York Times that they felt it was their job as a teacher to 'protect kids' — 'sometimes from their own parents.'

Such cases are becoming more common as teachers grapple with the small-but-growing number of children wanting to change gender at school, and the especially tricky ones who don't want their parents to know about it.

On this frontline in America's culture wars, parents, kids, teachers, and therapists have to make tough calls about rising rates of transgenderism, mental health issues, peer pressure and whether affirmation-on-demand is always the best answer.

But for many parents, they are dangerous, and could deny them a chance to help their children as they struggle to navigate puberty.

DailyMail.com has spoken with several parents of trans-identifying kids. Many worry that their offspring were influenced to transition by classmates, TikTok influencers, or teachers and school counselors with a drum to beat.

Some do not believe their kids are truly transgender and aim to defer such irreversible steps as puberty blockers or surgery. Many said their child instead had mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and autism.