California school district changes genderidentity policy after being sued by state
LA MIRADA — Ricardo Tirado was named to Biola University’s Dean’s List for academic excellence.
According to a press release from Biola University, Ricardo Tirado, an Art major from Calipatria, was one of approximately 1,600 students named to the dean’s list in Fall 2023. Biola students are placed on the dean’s list to honor those with a GPA of 3.6 or higher while enrolled in 12 or more credits and whose cumulative GPA is at least 3.2.
“Inclusion in Biola University’s Dean’s List is reserved for students who demonstrate exceptional performance in their academic studies. This honor signifies hard work, engagement, and investment in scholarship,” Dr. Tamara Anderson, Senior Associate Provost said in the release. “These attributes are the building blocks of continued success, not only in the classroom, but in the workplace and in the student’s personal lives. We celebrate these students and their achievement, looking forward to their future accomplishments.”
Biola University celebrated 116 years of impacting its surrounding communities this month by returning to its LA roots and serving the homeless community in downtown Los Angeles. Biola is a nationally ranked Christian university in the heart of Southern California. In a recently released study in the book Christian Higher Education: An Empirical Guide by Perry Glanzer, Biola scored the highest out of 570 Christian colleges and universities in North America for making Christian faith central to its identity, curriculum, community, and policies.
For more information, visit biola.edu or call (562) 777-4061.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California school district sued by the state has updated its policy requiring staff to notify parents that a student is using a different pronoun or bathroom designated for another gender and now will only mention that a child has requested a change to their student records.
The Chino Valley Unified School District board approved the updated policy on Thursday as the district fights a lawsuit filed by Democratic state Attorney General Rob Bonta, who called the original policy discriminatory. Bonta’s office did not respond to email requests for comment on the policy changes.
The policy maintains part of the original rule requiring staff to notify parents within three days of their child requesting any changes to their “official or unofficial records,” although it does not specify what that would include. All references to gender identification changes have been removed from the policy.
LGBTQ+ advocates said the new mandate is simply a legal loophole to repackage the same policy that continues to violate the rights of students.
“They’re just broadening the scope so that they don’t obviously single that population out,” said Kristi Hirst, who co-founded the public education advocacy group
Our Schools USA. “But the intent behind it, in my opinion, is no different.”
Both Chino’s original and updated policies include other scenarios in which school staff would have to notify parents, such as when their child is significantly injured at school. But schools already were required to report when a child’s safety is threatened.
The battle at the district in Chino, a city about 32 miles (52 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, is part of a nationwide debate over local school districts and the rights of parents and LGBTQ+ students. States across the country have sought to impose bans on gender-affirming care, bar trans athletes from girls and women’s sports, and require schools to “out” trans and nonbinary students to their parents. Some lawmakers in other states have introduced bills in their legislatures with broad language requiring that parents be notified of any changes to their child’s emotional health or well-being.
In California, proponents of the notification policies are trying to get a measure on the November ballot to require schools to notify parents if a child asks to change their gender identification at school, bar transgender girls in grades 7 and up from participating in girls sports, and ban gender-affirming care for minors.