Read the latest news about the struggle to preserve parental rights at all levels of government. Learn what the Santa Clara Moms for Liberty group has been up to, what upcoming events and functions we're having, and how you can help.
"Just when you think California legislators can’t thumb their noses at parents any harder, Assemblyman Christopher Ward (D-San Diego) introduced a bill this week that aims to strip control from local school boards. Ward’s AB 1955 — the Orwellian-named SAFETY Act — is an attempt to override the parental notification policies passed by a growing number of school boards across the state that require schools to inform parents if their child changes their name and/or gender at school.
"[W]hat makes Ward’s move extra sleazy is that his legislation is what is known as a “gut and amend” bill. That means he hijacked another bill and replaced its text to create AB 1955, allowing him to skirt the usual legislative process that allows the bill to be debated and the public to weigh in on it through public hearings according to the predictable legislative calendar."
RE: Assembly Bill 1955 (Support Academic Futures and Education for Today's Youth Act)
As Amended in Senate May 22 2024 – OPPOSE
Dear Senate Education Committee:
Moms for Liberty Santa Clara County CA finds itself having to take a strong oppose position with regard to Assembly Bill 1955, the deceptively named Support Academic Futures and Education for Today's Youth (SAFETY) Act.
Let me be crystal clear. AB 1955 is problematic on a number of different levels, each of which make this bill utterly unsalvagable.
AB 1955 violates a parent's recognized authority over their own children. Parents have the primary responsibility for raising, educating, and protecting the children under their care, and parents have the best perspective of their children’s mental state, behavioral quirks and emotional well-being. Rather than seeing to having public schools which support parental efforts to educate their children, this bill appears to want to subvert the traditional role of parents.
AB 1955 violates the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA is quite clear on the right of parents to have universal access to information about their children from public schools. The lack of any reference to FERPA within the legislative findings / declarations seems more than a little odd,especially given the fact that school districts which make use of "dummy files" or "unofficial records" to “support” the idea of a new identity for a child who believes themselves to have been born in the wrong body stand to lose federal funding. FERPA states the situation clearly: "No funds shall be made available under any applicable program to any educational agency or institution which has a policy of denying, or which effectively prevents, the parents of students who are or have been in attendance at a school of such agency or at such institution, as the case may be, the right to inspect and review the education records of their children.” 20 U.S.C.A. § 1232g(a)(1)(A).
AB 1955 fails to address the three fundamental harms already identifed by the courts.
Harm to children who require parental guidance (and perhaps mental health interventions to determine if / how gender dysphoria is presenting itself, whether that be by natural progression, through peer pressures / bullying, or social tension).
Harm to parents by depriving them of the long-recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to provide care and guidance (and make healthcare decisions) for their children.
Harm to teachers by compelling them to violate parent rights (and perhaps their own code of ethic) by forcing them to conceal information they believe to be important to the welfare of their students. See Mirabelli v. Olson EUSD (2023), Case No. 3:23-cv-00768-BEN-WVG, September 14, 2023
AB 1955 paints parents as dangerous people who are not to be trusted, and appears to want to promote the idea that the state of California or some specially designated set of strangers is somehow better positioned to deal with the difficulties of adolescence than parents.3
AB 1955 looks to want to grant children a right to privacy which somehow supercedes the rights of their parents. While it would appear reasonable to protect the privacy of a child from public view (consistent with federal and state law), children do not possess a right to autonomous privacy.
AB 1955 would wrest important child care decisions from parents (where those decisions rightly belong) and place them instead in the hands of people involved in administering government education (teachers, councilors, administrators, etc). The idea that it might ever be considered proper for a parent to be denied a role in the education and upbringing of their children is simply inconceivable.
AB 1955 represents an attempt to codify the California Department of Education’s illegal guidance on AB 1266. California Attorney General Bonta has told a federal judge that the practice envisioned in this bill is currently “unenforceable”. The Attorney General and State Superintendent of Public Instruction continue to harass local school districts for their adoption of policies affirmed by judges across California. The bill paints the government as having a legitimate, primary claim to control over children as young as four or five years of age.
The Liberty Justice Center is engaged in the fight to protect the constitutional rights of American families, as evidenced by the work being done as two prominent California school districts continue to defend their parental notification policies in court. Legal filings are now available in the case of California v. Chino Valley Unified School District 1 as well as the case of California Department of Education v. Rocklin Unified School District2.
We agree with LJC's President Jacob Huebert when he says, “Parents have a right to know what their own minor children are doing at school — and school officials have no right to keep secrets from parents. That’s true now, and it will still be true if the state passes this bill. We will continue to stand with parents and the school districts that want to respect their rights — and we’ll continue to represent them free of charge, at no cost to taxpayers.”
Again, we stand in strong opposition to AB 1955, and hope to see its defeat.
[3] See Antonia M. v. Pomona Unified School District, BC543558 (Los Angeles Super. Ct. 2016) https://www.publicjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020.11.09-Fall-2020-Edition-SCRP-Verdicts-and-Settlements-List-Final.pdf
Advocates who fight in support of parental rights should be sure to stay on top of AB 1955 and other legislative activities in California. Remember, we got into this mess by not paying close enough attention to what our "representatives" were doing. To have any hope of turning things around, we need to do better.
To Restraining an Out-Of-Control California Legislature!
Mark Your Calendar...
If you share our concern over what has been taking place in our classrooms, please consider joining with us as we fight for families, for children, for education, for truth, and for common sense.
We continue to ask people whether they understand what is now taking place within our school systems. We continue to provide information and resources to help people, especially parents, gain some idea of what's being taught to kids (and why). And yes, we continue to ask people to get involved and help with the lifting.
We fight against children being taught to hate their country, to judge people based on the color of their skin, and to ignore the basic truths of biology. We fight against the sexualization in school of little ones and the destruction of the innocence of youth. Perhaps most importantly, we fight to ensure that the proper teaching of math, reading and writing remain at the forefront of a child's education.
The idea that it is parents who are responsible for raising, educating, and seeing to the well being of their kids, that is sacrosanct.
Join with us in preserving the attributes and ideals of this great nation.
Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends and family. Actually anyone who acknowledges the fundamental right of parents to raise, educate, and protect their children are invited to join with us. We are gathering a group of joyful warriors, folks who understands why (and for whom) we fight.
Think on this...
IT IS FAVOURABLE TO LIBERTY.
FREEDOM CAN EXIST ONLY IN THE SOCIETY OF KNOWLEDGE.
WITHOUT LEARNING, MEN ARE INCAPABLE OF KNOWING THEIR RIGHTS,
AND WHERE LEARNING IS CONFINED TO A FEW PEOPLE, LIBERTY CAN BE
NEITHER EQUAL NOR UNIVERSAL.
- Benjamin Rush
HE WHO IS NOT ANGRY WHEN THERE IS JUST CAUSE FOR ANGER IS IMMORAL.
WHY? BECAUSE ANGER LOOKS TO THE GOOD OF JUSTICE.
AND IF YOU CAN LIVE AMID INJUSTICE WITHOUT ANGER,
YOU ARE IMMORAL AS WELL AS UNJUST.
- Thomas Aquinas
THE END OF LAW IS NOT TO ABOLISH OR RESTRAIN,
BUT TO PRESERVE AND ENLARGE FREEDOM.
FOR IN ALL THE STATES OF CREATED BEINGS CAPABLE OF LAW,
WHERE THERE IS NO LAW, THERE IS NO FREEDOM. - John Locke
IT IS BETTER TO TOLERATE THE RARE INSTANCE OF A PARENT
REFUSING TO LET HIS CHILD BE EDUCATED,
THAN TO SHOCK THE COMMON FEELINGS AND IDEAS
BY FORCIBLE ASPORTATION AND EDUCATION OF THE INFANT
AGAINST THE WILL OF THE FATHER.
- Thomas Jefferson
Moms for Liberty Santa Clara County operates as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization.
The organization's primary mission is to organize, educate and empower parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.
