California school district sues Newsom over transgender law

A California school district sued Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday over a new state law that bans schools from requiring educators to tell a parent or guardian if a student is going by a different name or pronoun.

The Chino Valley Unified School District sued the governor saying the law violates parents’ rights that are protected under the Constitution, ramping up the turmoil between the district and state.

“This is a deeply unserious lawsuit, seemingly designed to stoke the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter rather than surface legitimate legal claims. AB 1955 preserves the child-parent relationship, California law ensures minors can’t legally change their name or gender without parental consent, and parents continue to have guaranteed and full access to their student’s educational records consistent with federal law. We’re confident the state will swiftly prevail in this case,” said Izzy Gardon, spokesperson for the governor.  

The law does say a parent needs to be notified about a name or gender change if the student tries to change their official record, and officials argue it does not allow teachers to hide information from parents but makes it so they aren’t forced to out a student’s LGBTQ identity.  

“School officials do not have the right to keep secrets from parents, but parents do have a constitutional right to know what their minor children are doing at school,” said Emily Rae, a lawyer representing the district, NBC News reported.  

This isn’t the first time the state and Chino Valley Unified School District have gone into a legal battle, with the state previously suing the district over a rule requiring teachers to tell parents about name or pronoun changes of a student, even if the student didn’t try to change the official record.  

The district ended up changing the rule to only require parental notification in the event of a request to change the official record.  

The new law has stirred up controversy, as some say it protects students from forced outings while others argue the state is allowing schools to withhold information about their child from them.  

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, said he is moving the aerospace company’s headquarters from California due to the law.

“This is the final straw,” Musk said on his social platform X. “Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”