Greg Burt, director of capitol engagement for the California Family Council, says pushing back against the education establishment that excluded parents from decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education has voted 4-1 to enact a new parental notification policy.
Schools must now let parents know if their children are injured at school, bullied, being a bully, showing signs of suicide, and especially if a child is struggling with gender dysphoria.
"Now, when California has the Department of Ed encouraging school districts to hide from parents if a child wants to change their gender identity, teachers are being instructed to keep that secret," he explains. "All of that is making parents very uncomfortable."
This month's packed, hours-long school board meeting was attended by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and more than 80 other vocal opponents as well as supporters of the new policy.
Thurmond claims it will put LGBTQ-identified students in danger from non-affirming parents, but when he went over his time speaking, School Board President Sonja Shaw turned off his microphone, as she did other speakers who spoke longer than permitted.
Shaw then thanked Thurmond for coming, saying, "We're here because of people like you. You're in Sacramento, proposing things that pervert children."
"This particular school district, they voted in some new school board members, and these school board members are now enacting policies to put the parents back in charge," Burt relays.
He adds that many other districts have shown an interest in the Chino Valley results, and he hopes this type of parental action will spread across the country.
