The state of California, under Attorney General Rob Bonta, filed a lawsuit Aug. 28 against Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) over a parental rights policy passed in July.

The policy requires schools to notify the parents of any child who asks to be identified at school as a gender other than the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or other official records. Three more California school districts—Murrieta Valley, Temecula Valley and Anderson Union—have since passed the same policy.

Bonta’s suit claims that the policy “has placed transgender and gender nonconforming students in danger of imminent, irreparable harm from the consequences of forced disclosures.”

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino school board, responded: “Once again this is government overreach, and the political cartel of Bonta, [Gov. Gavin] Newsom and [State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony] Thurmond is using their muscle and taxpayers’ dollars to shut parents out of their children’s lives. Bonta can’t even cite a law we are breaking in the documents, and I find it a joke.”

Jonathan Keller, president of the California Family Council, also blasted the lawsuit, calling it “a disturbing departure from the state’s traditional role of supporting parents as the primary decisionmakers in their children’s lives. It appears the government is stepping in as the de facto parent, a move unsupported by legal precedent.”

One of the constitutional attorneys defending the school district’s policy is Dean Broyles, president of the National Center for Law and Policy. He said Bonta is about to be “schooled” in an expensive legal lesson of federalism.

“The right of parents to direct the care, education and upbringing of their children is a fundamental right of all Americans, safeguarded by the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment,” Broyles said. “[It] is recognized by more than 100 years of Supreme Court precedent. California Attorney General Rob Bonta continues to seek to crush local control of schools and trash parental rights by now resorting to the courts to coerce CVUSD to conform to his bent will.

“His transparent purpose is to slow down the growing number of school districts adopting the model parental notification policy. Why? Because he is apparently more concerned about woke ideology than sound constitutionality—or the actual health and safety of children. Overreaching Bonta apparently believes the absolutely insane notion that parents do not have the right to know what is happening with their child’s health and safety in our public schools.”

Above: Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District, speaks in support of parental rights during a rally at the state Capitol Aug. 14.

Photo: Renée C. Byer/TNS/Newscom