25 Jul In-the-News Update [Issue: Education]
California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond was escorted out of a school board meeting while protesting a policy that requires informing parents if their child expresses a desire to change genders. The Chino Valley Unified School District’s policy passed, stating that parents must be notified if their child wants to be identified or treated as a gender different from their biological sex, seeks a name change or pronoun change, or has mental health concerns related to gender. Thurmond objected, warning that it might compromise student safety in some households. School board president Sonja Shaw accused Thurmond of supporting an agenda that would “pervert children.” Thurmond stated that he was standing up for LGBTQ+ students who felt threatened by the policy. This issue has sparked controversy across the county, with parents from both sides of the political spectrum concerned about policies that keep them uninformed about their children’s gender changes in school. Teachers have also faced religious discrimination lawsuits for refusing to deceive parents about their children’s gender transitions. The meeting incident occurred amid Governor Gavin Newsom’s interest in school board policies, and he recently fined a school district for alleged LGBTQ+-related censorship.