Schools will comply with state order

For now, telling parents if a child identifies as transgender won’t be enforced, says board

Murrieta schools won’t enforce a policy requiring parents to be told if their child identifies as transgender, according to an email sent to parents.

The Friday email came two days after the California Department of Education ordered the Murrieta Valley Unified School District not to implement the policy, which the district school board approved by a 3-2 vote last August and reaffirmed by a 3-2 vote in March.

The email stated that the policy has yet to be enforced while officials work on more detailed rules for implementing it.

Board member Nick Pardue, who first proposed the policy with board President Paul Diffley, said Monday that the email sent to parents was “very misleading” and “could have been worded much differently.”

“It left the impression the issue had been settled,” Pardue said. “It does imply something wrong with our policy to begin with. That’s not true.”

Pardue also criticized the state education department’s letter, calling it “an effort to disenfranchise parents and the community of Murrieta.”

“This is a process that will make its way through the court system and the state does not have a right to dictate to school boards and those challenges are worked out in court and not by fiat,” he said. “The parents need to know they have a right to make their voices heard and this issue is not settled.”

Mirroring policies passed in Chino Valley, Temecula and Orange, Murrieta’s policy requires parents or guardians to be notified if their student asks to identify as a gender other than the “biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or any other official records.”

Actions triggering the policy include requests to use different names or pronouns, access athletics teams or bathrooms not aligned with the student’s biological sex or change information on records.

The policy’s supporters say parents have an absolute right to know what’s going on in their children’s lives. Critics counter that the policy violates students’ privacy and endangers children whose parents don’t accept their transgender identity. Investigating a complaint by two district teachers, state education officials determined the policy is illegal because it singles out transgender students.

“This 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,” the education department’s letter to the district read.

District spokesperson Monica Gutierrez said the district to date has not enforced the policy, a message repeated in Friday’s email to parents.

On Monday, Gutierrez referred to an email Superintendent Ward Andrus sent to employees after the board approved the policy in summer, noting that before the policy went into effect, an “administrative regulation,” which spells out how the policy will be implemented, would have to be drafted.

“This process may include a thorough review of current adopted policies and resolving any potential conflicts related to parent notification, rights, and student privacy laws as well as confidentiality and student services such as bullying reporting and mental health services …,” Andrus’ email read.

“To date, an accompanying administrative regulation has not been submitted to the board for review and approval,” Gutierrez said via email Monday. “The administrative team continues to work with legal counsel to draft an administrative regulation.”