Three weeks after the Chino, California, school board passed a policy requiring school officials to notify a student’s parents if the child asks to identify as a gender other than the sex listed on the child’s birth certificate, the Murrieta Valley Unified School District has followed suit.

At the end of the board’s nearly three-hour Aug. 10 meeting, board members voted 3-2 in favor of the policy, according to the California Family Council. The result brought cheers and applause from community members who attended the meeting.

State officials strongly oppose the parental notification policies. Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond emailed the board, urging them to retract the policy, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that he was “deeply disturbed to learn another school district” had adopted a parental rights policy, which he described as a “forced outing policy.”

But advocates for the policy argue that parents are in the best position to help their children who struggle with gender dysphoria.

“As a parent myself, I can’t help but think how anti-family the current state guidance is,” said Jessica Tapia, a former teacher who accused the Jurupa Unified School District of firing her for refusing to abide by gender-affirming policies. “Parents are the greatest protectors,” she told the Los Angeles Times.

Before the Aug. 10 meeting, School Board President Paul F. Diffley III, who put forth the proposal along with trustee Nicolas Pardue, said in an interview: “As a parent, I would want to know about everything that concerns my child’s mental health and physical health while they’re at school. I don’t think there should be anything hidden, because I have a fundamental right as a parent to bring up my child … If I can’t get all the information I need to have to have a reasonable discussion with my child, then the school is not doing its job.”

Photo: Screenshot of Aug. 10 meeting, from the Murrieta Valley Unified School District YouTube channel.