Editor’ Note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Murrieta Valley Unified School District has been ordered by the state Board of Education to stop enforcing a policy that requires parents to be notified if their child requests to be identified as anything other than the sex assigned to them at birth, according to an investigation report issued by the state on the matter.
The California Department of Education issued the order Wednesday, April 10, after finding the policy, BP5020.1, which was originally approved in August, discriminates against transgender youth.
“California has stated an intent to allow all persons in public schools to be free of discrimination based on characteristics enumerated in California law. Among other such protected characteristics, California expressly prohibits discrimination by public education agencies on the basis of gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation,” the investigation report said.
According to the report, the prohibition against discrimination based on gender, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation applies to all persons in public schools, including students.
The policy states that any member of a school’s staff “shall notify the parent(s)/guardian(s), in writing, within three days from the date any District employee, administrator, or certificated staff, becomes aware that a student is: a. Requesting to be identified or treated, as a gender (as defined in Education Code Section 210.7) other than the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or any other official records.”
The policy includes requests by students to use a name that “differs from their legal name (other than a commonly recognized diminutive of the child’s legal name) or to use pronouns that do not align with the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or other official records.”
The letter issued by the state gives MVUSD five days to tell staff and students that the policy, which was originally proposed by board President Paul Diffley and trustee Nick Pardue, will not be implemented and 10 days to provide proof to the state that it had taken corrective action.
The investigation into the MVUSD policy stemmed from a March complaint filed by Jamie Goebel and Karen Poznanski, both teachers in the district.
An effort to rescind the policy brought before the board of education by Superintendent Ward Andrus during the March 28 Board of Education meeting failed in a split decision
In the letter issued to the district, the state said the policy, “… On its face fails to comply” with the state’s Education Code’s “prohibitions against discrimination.”
“The CDE finds the District’s policy—BP5020.1—on its face singles out and is directed exclusively toward one group of students based on that group’s legally protected characteristics of identifying with or expressing a gender other than that identified at birth. And the application of that policy adversely impacts those students,” the letter said. “Finally, BP 5020.1 does not expressly or implicitly provide any educational or school administrative purpose justifying either form of discrimination.”
MVUSD, Chino Valley, Temecula Valley and Orange unified school districts all approved nearly identical parental notification policies last summer but then the lawsuits began to stack up.
In August, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against Chino Valley while a coalition of students, parents, teachers and a teachers’ union, which was already suing TVUSD for its critical race theory ban, added the district’s policy outing trans students to the existing lawsuit.
In October, a judge granted a preliminary injunction to stop Chino Valley from enforcing parts of its policy, but a similar request to prevent Temecula Valley from enforcing its parental notification policy and critical race theory ban was denied earlier in March.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Eric Keen refused to block the TVUSD policies saying that the parental notification policy was not discriminatory because it “applies equally” to cisgender and transgender/gender nonconforming students. Keen called the district’s critical race theory ban “unconstitutionally vague,” writing in part the “claims of harm are conclusory and unfounded.” Keen’s ruling will allow the case to be heard in a trial, but as of press time, no dates have been set.
In the letter, the state said the policy “circumvents a student’s determination of when and where to share private personal information regarding gender identification and expression and it is required to be divulged without regard for the nuances of the relationship between the student and parent.
“These harms and risks of harm to the students, their constitutional rights of privacy and the protections afforded by California’s anti-discrimination policies are significant,” it said.
MVUSD Board President Paul Diffley could not be reached for comment prior to the publishing of this article.
