Board President Says Anderson Union School District “Will Not Comply” with California’s SAFETY Act
Current Board policy isn’t in line with California’s SAFETY Act, which was just signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. The new law goes into effect January 1, 2025.
On Monday, July 15, California gained a new law known as the SAFETY Act. Previously known as Assembly Bill 1955, it strengthens current educational law that supports students in California’s LGBTQ+ community. It was passed into law in hopes of curbing the actions of about a dozen California school districts, including Anderson Union High School District, that have enacted “parental notification” policies.
It’s the latest legal maneuver in a prolonged battle between the state and some California school districts over the legal balance between parents’ rights to information and students’ rights to privacy.
Yesterday, July 17, AUHSD Board President Jackie LaBarbera responded to the signing of the SAFETY Act with a Facebook post in which she said AUHSD’s response to the new law is that the District will continue to follow its current policies. Her post was accompanied by an image of the words, “We Will Not Comply.”
7.22.24 2:57 pm: We have updated the article to correct a reference to the California Teacher’s Association and to update the headline.
In a follow-up phone call with Shasta Scout, LaBarbera acknowledged that AUHSD’s Board has not yet voted to approve a statement on the Safety Act, but said as President she doesn’t need approval from the Board for “every little thing.”
“As the board president I’ve been granted authority by the majority of the board, so by default my statement comes as representing the board,” LaBarbera said.
AUHSD’s Board policies on communication seem to indicate otherwise.
LaBarbera said in her post that parents have a right to be informed of changes their students have requested at school under a law known as the Federal Educational Parents Rights Act, or FERPA. That law, which is intended to ensure that students’ records are kept private and confidential, does not require notification of parents regarding official or unofficial changes to school records, including changes regarding name or pronoun preferences.
Her statement was soon reshared by fellow AUHSD Board member Darin Hale, who wrote: “I WILL NOT OBEY” the State when they cross the line with our kids. They do not hold the same values as us in the Northstate and I for one am done listening to these bureaucratic elitist (sic) and the tyrannical governor.”
The California Attorney General’s Office has not yet responded to a request for comment on LaBarbera’s and Hale’s statements.
AUHSD Teachers Association President Shaye Stephens is among those who testified in Sacramento in support of the SAFETY Act. Last August, she told the AUHSD Board that forcing teachers to take actions that violate state law puts staff in an untenable position. Today, Stephens told Shasta Scout that she and others at AUHSD are disappointed in LaBarbera’s decision to double down on current policy.
“We are disappointed that our Board Chair chose not to put this to bed after the state of California has now put it in black and white. In the past, the Board told us that California education law was ambiguous and that privacy is an ambiguous word and that parents rights supersede kids privacy . . . . Now California has said specifically that you can’t force teachers to do this.”
“It’s unfortunate for our students. That’s who’s going to be affected by this the most. It’s really sad that they are putting their rhetoric and their political agenda above the safety of our students,” Stephens continued.
AUHSD is among a number of California school districts that have passed so-called “parental notification” policies within the last year. California’s Attorney General, and advocates including the American Civil Liberties Union, use a different name for the new rules, referring to them as “forced outing” policies.
The policy has created significant concern for the California Teachers Association, which said via representative Sean Ferguson last August that the AUHSD parent notification policy violated California Assembly Bill 1266 and California Education Code 221.5.
AUHSD’s current policy was adopted on April 16, 2024 and replaced a policy which was adopted just eleven months ago. The change came after California’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against another district over a similar policy.
The most recent version of the policy says staff members are required to notify a student’s parents in writing within three days of becoming aware of any request for a change to a student’s official or unofficial records. This could include any verbal request for a specific teacher to refer to a student by a name other than that in their school records, or to use pronouns that don’t correspond to the gender listed in those records.
The update to the policy is an attempt to address issues raised by California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta in a legal warning sent to AUHSD and other Districts in January. The notice stated that “parental notification” policies violate students’ civil rights as outlined in California’s Equal Protection Clause and Constitution as well as existing education law.
AUHSD’s updated policy addressed some of those concerns by omitting any mention of gender identity and sexual orientation and creating an alternative approach to parent notification for students who might face abuse at home. But it still requires parent notification for any “official or unofficial” request for a change in records, including one related to gender and sexual orientation.
That does not appear to comply with the SAFETY Act, which strengthens existing California law by more overtly declaring that educational institutions are prohibited from enacting or enforcing policies that require employees to disclose information related to a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression without the student’s express consent.
The SAFETY Act was only signed into law four days ago, but the Chino Valley Unified School District has already issued a lawsuit in response. They’re represented in the lawsuit by the same firm that’s been representing AUHSD in its attempt to maintain its current policies, a conservative nonprofit legal organization known as the Liberty Justice Center.
The new Chino Valley lawsuit alleges that the SAFETY Act is a breach of parents’ constitutional rights, including their right to freedom of religious expression, and says it “upends the traditional relationship between students, their parents, and their teachers.”
One of the eight parent plaintiffs listed in the case is Leslie Sawyer, Chair of the Shasta County branch of Moms for Liberty, who also works as a Production Manager for Mountain Top Media. According to the lawsuit, Sawyer is “a devout Christian who believes God created man and woman as distinct, immutable genders.” The lawsuit says she’s also the parent of a student who will soon attend AUHSD as a ninth grader.
While Sawyer’s child has not yet attended school in the District, the lawsuit says that Sawyer “objects on both conscience and religious grounds” to “(her) public school withholding information about changes to (her) child’s gender identity”.
The new legislation will go into effect January 1, 2025. In addition to prohibiting districts from requiring staff to share information about students’ gender or sexual orientation with parents, the legislation also provides increased support services for LGBTQ+ students at both junior high and high schools.
Do you have a correction to this story? Email us at editor@shastascout.org.
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I just emailed LaBarbera a respectful but very honest email about my experiences with being outed to my homophobic parents. It absolutely ruined my education and in many ways pushed me towards the fringes of society. I hope that she has a heart and hears what I had to say, because this is very real for a lot of us.
Bring back the PTA Parent and Teachers association and get the government out of our schools.
For some reason most of the AUHS district BoT seem to think the AG or State Superintendent will sit by and let them go the Not Comply route…well let’s see how they feel about funding delay/or removal ? Only hurts the students and staff.
Good goin’ Ms. La Barbera, you are a real concerned individual…(not).
Children don’t go to school to learn about gender or how to change it.
Children go to school to learn how to read and write and spell. math, science, history.
Children are under the civil rights law of their parents.
1) All parents with children under 18 should not obey this CA safety act law.
2) All teachers and school board members with students under 18 should report any gender confusion issues with the children’s parents.
This CA safety law is a gender manipulation law of oppression. And must not be obeyed.
Parents and voters must appeal this sic law. Do not obey it. If my kids were young children, I would risk jail time to prevent my kids from being brainwashed.
And to all the commenters, who love this California safety law. Y’all need a psychiatrist. Make sure it’s a psychiatrist that was born with their gender and likes their gender.
You clearly don’t even understand what you are trying to write an opinion about. This legislation does not obligate parents to do or not do anything. No parents are at risk of going to jail based on this new law either. This legislation does not prevent or restrict teachers, counselors, school psychologists and other trusted educators adults from communicating with parents and guardians. Please read what was actually passed and familiarize yourself with the facts rather than relying on inaccurate sources.
Happy Citizen, threats are absolutely not cool on this platform.
What would you do if your child came out as gay to you? No brainwashing, school not involved, what would you do?
My parents chose an authoritarian route, though I suppose not the worst. Many Christian parents choose to physically beat their children, which thankfully I avoided, will that be your preference? Or perhaps you will take them to church for emotional and spiritual abuse? At the very least, hopefully you won’t sexually abuse them, or god forbid trust them around Christian family members or priests because they LOVE sexually abusing queer children with no support system.
The truly sad thing is you have not realized that sexuality does not change through teaching, it is something innate to you that is shaped by your experiences, but ultimately of the same substance you started with. If your child is straight, nothing they learn in school will change that whatsoever. Just like myself and so many gay children, who have been forced through Christian brainwashing, have not changed. Those who pretend that they have are the same ones using Grindr at the RNC.
I applaud Jackie’s bravery in standing up to an overreaching state. This is another law designed to put separation between parents and their children. Kids can be good at keeping secrets. Even kids with loving, involved parents can have things they want to keep secret from their parents. I know I did. I found out years later that my parents would have been the best people to talk to when emotions weighed on me. They were much more understanding than I thought possible.
Teaching kids it is ok to keep secrets from their parents, and also allowing them to go through life changing emotions and decisions without the support of those who love them the most can be very damaging.
AUHSD is being very brave in protecting the schools, parents, and students from the state. Thank you, especially Jackie and Darin!
Most of us who are a bit past our prime don’t remember LGBTQ kids when we were in school. In fact it seems that this push only began in the last 10-15 years. So I started thinking when and where did this social engineering get it’s start and why and who benefits?
The new state law, The Safety Act, was directly related to bringing state law in line with the SF school district policies. I would expect SF parents needs to be far different than those of Anderson parents.
A July 19 article in the SF Examiner on the subject of the new law refers to the “Trevor Project’s 2023 national survey on LGBTQ’. What I see happening over the last decade or so is an introduction, normalization and sexualization of very young children beginning in kindergarten with LGBTQ awareness. This is opening a door to gender confusion among our children that is designed not to protect as much as to promote these concepts which will necessarily lead to confusion in the minds of children.
I believe it social engineering the consequences of which we know very little. My instinct tell me it is wrong on nearly every level.
It is a sign of uninformed fear that parents would object to trying to keep kids safe. It is naive to think that all parents would respond in a safe manner if their child is having any gender issues. Schools are not making kids into something they are not already, they are simply trying to be a safe space for ALL students. This really says more about a parent’s inability to establish a safe relationship with their child so that the child would be open to sharing with the parent. That’s on parents, not on the schools or government. If your child does not talk to you, ask yourself why. That is the real issue here. Parents need to step up and make it so that kids are safe no matter what. Schools recognize every student and their needs. Fearful parents object to schools doing that. Stop trying to force teachers to alert you because you don’t know what is going on with your child. It’s time that parents actually do what they need to…. like monitor what YOUR own child reads, become aware of your own child’s needs, and to stop thinking that the schools report directly to YOU as an individual. Public Schools serve the public good and that includes keeping our students safe. They say its a “parents rights” movement well how about a little parent responsibility. Moms for Liberty has filled peoples heads against the public schools all to drive money into the private sector. So I ask, do you want your child’s school to close down?
I would not feel safe attending or working at a school in this district AT ALL. In fact, I actively avoided applying there because I knew I would not feel safe with these people as my peers and supervisors.
Protect trans kids.
They are not a special category, but simply children, their parent’s responsibility. That’s the principle.
Elizabeth: The principle that our current court system runs on is that the state has a special interest in serving the well being of children as separate entities from their parents. Thus the existence of child protective services, for example. Children are in fact separate humans with their own rights to bodily protection, for example, as evidenced by child abuse cases that end in parents losing custody.
It’s called safety. Kids will share with people they feel safe with and hide from people who make them feel unsafe. If that happens to be a parent, that’s not government intervention, that’s bad parenting.
Hooray for California and our LGBTQ students! Leave the kids alone!!!
Rather, keep ONLY parents responsible for their children.
Hi Bruce, Since you don’t believe in CA laws, maybe you want to join Elon in Texas. Being a rebel is one thing, but pushing your lawless agenda on others who follow the law is just not very kind of you.
Hi Frank,
Enjoy being a slave to a tyrannical government that despises the Constitution.
If you want to support lawful laws, and righteous principles, it must be done not through tyranny, but through legality—the voting system.
Parents have all the rights! Kids do not!!
Correct!!!
Hats off to President La Barbera and Mr Hale for standing in the gap for kids and their parents (and sanity) against the rabid Unmasked Extremists of Shasta County and the foul, corrupt, Socialistic and all powerful teacher’s union. An unjust, anti faith and family values law is no law at all and must be defied in every peaceful way possible!
God bless and protect you Jackie, Darin and also the brave, patriotic and strong Moms for Liberty!
Robert, you are correct, I agree, but she’s letting her emotions make a decision. We are a country of the rule of law principles. She acted tyrannical from her feelings, though righteous they are. Just as our governor and his cronies make unlawful law out of their emotions.
The way to build trust is not to keep secrets. The state would like to keep parents uninformed about serious mental and emotional issues facing their children. They assume that by doing so they will be protecting them. This is illogical to say the least. Nearly 100% of parents want the best for their children and they must know the issues facing them. To blindly assume otherwise is Orwellian.
Schools now have counselors who are encouraging vulnerable children to live out their fantasies which can have life altering consequences. Parents have a right to know that the schools may be encouraging this behavior in the guise of protecting them. Who’s to say if for any particular student they are right or wrong? The state of course is assuming they are right. What percentage of the children affected by gender identity aka. gender dysphoria outgrow it? Does the law recently passed protect them from schools or counselors that may prolong their confusion?
What we are talking about here is perhaps 1-2% of the student body. This is nothing more than the LGBQT agenda being forced on us by our overlords in Sacramento to appease a special interest group. I applaud Anderson for sticking up for parents and not assuming that the state will do the right thing for their children. They cannot even educate them. Sacramento should be fully focused on the reasons our schools are 29th or worse compared to other states.
Unfortunately Jackie La Barbera’s children did not and and do not attend Anderson school system. So, for her to take this position of being lawless and think she’s being protected by some law firm is naive to say the least. Get ready for Ms. La Barbera to run for Anderson City Council and espouse the same out-of-touch nonsense. Her fellow trustees should distance themselves from this super-radical individual, or be part of a Atty General’s lawsuit. Yes, Recall, or vote her out is the mantra !
Correct. Parents have first, primary rights, not children, not government, not public school.
This bill is just more State tyranny. The State wants to raise your children and destroy the family unit. Elon Musk gets it. He is moving his SpaceX headquarters to Texas because of this bill. Do not comply is a rational response.
Hi Bruce, Since you don’t believe in CA laws, maybe you want to join Elon in Texas. Being a rebel is one thing, but pushing your lawless agenda on others who follow the law is just not very kind of you.
Hi Frank,
Enjoy being a slave to a tyrannical government that despises the Constitution.
And now we’re finding “the Constitution” in state law regarding student records and parental notification. Have to tell ya, Bruce – the Founders are having a belly laugh, if not rolling in their graves.
You are right the Founders are rolling over in their graves. They have to be appalled that we the people have allowed tyrannical, one-party rule in California. They would have rose up long ago. They would not tolerate the government interfering in their parental rights.
Mr. Russell: What other laws can members of deliberative bodies in Shasta County ignore at will? Will the State even care, or does it consider SC such a reactionary backwater with too few inhabitants to GAF? Do I have to be a member of a deliberative body to violate a State law? Does being a member of such a body confer immunity behind which an individual has no shelter? Sounds like an opportunity for a civics lesson.
Belgeri: I think you have pinpointed the real issue. Do we have a constitutional form of government? Are we consistent about following it? If not, what next?
Exactly Bruce. People should resist all attempts by the craven dictator to destroy families. In no way is this dictate “safe” for anyone.
Janet,
You either have not bothered to inform yourself about this issue and the reason for the bill or you have completely misunderstood. This bill has nothing to do with destroying families.
Janet,
You either have not taken the time to actually thoroughly research the issue and read the actual bill or you have misunderstood what this is all about. This bill has nothing to do with destroying families.
Musk doesn’t get it. That is why he is estranged from his own offspring. If extremists like M4L (not!) and others would stop forcing their white Christian fundamentalist rules on everyone else, this bill would not have been necessary.
Isn’t it interesting that when the governor gets emotional, and his legislators, too, they throw a fit because they want their way, not the people’s vote. Feelings and emotions can’t be allowed to make decisions. Careful thoughts must yield a decision. When name-calling occurs, or unlawful law occurs, that’s when you find out about emotions.
This board member should be sued, recalled and locally criticized! She is way, way off base on a number of things including REFUSING to follow State law!
Holier than thou? These are the fine and noble citizens who claim they will violate the law because they are pillars of high Christian Morals, and God said they could? These local Mommies For liberty are very the same people who state the 2020 Election Was Stolen, that Democrats are “Spawn Of Satin” and Uncircumcised Philistines,” that Jew Mosquitos are vaccinating people for Covid, that Hugo Chavez flipped voting machines for Biden, who demand that Shasta Co. District Attorney violated the law while demanding Shasta County break California election laws, who believe the only real Americans are white straight Christians who support Trump (a racist 34 time convicted felon and court adjudicated rapist), who support Supervisors Jones, Crye, and Kelstorm, who support 2025, and who demand that Shasta County becomes the State of Jefferson, and if truth be told, openly state public education should be abolished for publicly funded Christian Schools.
Holier than thou? Funny, nothing at all against lesbians, but Mommies For Liberty was co-founded by Bridget Ziegler, who stated she had a lesbian relationship with a woman who accused Bridget’s husband, Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziggler, of raping Mommies For Liberty Ziegler’s lesbian lover after Bridget’s lover stated she was not into Mr. Ziggler and clearly said NO, leave me alone. Mr. Ziggler told investigators that the sex he had with his wife’s lover was consensual sex. Oh, it’s but a you say tomato, I say tomato?
This is the United States of America. You can legally be LGBQT or whatever. So, look, Mommies, why don’t you keep your business to yourself? As far as breaking laws you don’t like, tell the judge, like Dr. Hobbs did; see how far that gets you. Or better yet, just call the whole thing off.
There are unlawful laws, laws that should be decided by a vote of the people, not of the representatives.
Elizabeth: all laws are decided the same way under our federal and state constitutions.
Look up “representative democracy.” You never got a direct vote on most of the California Penal Code, either. Or most of the other California statutes.
It seems like the parents who are up in arms about not being notified of their child’s request to be addressed by pronouns other than those that reflect their gender at birth should be putting greater effort into establishing and maintaining a supportive, loving relationship with their child. That way, they’d already be aware of what’s going on in their child’s life, and maybe their child would feel safe discussing such personal issues with them directly. Sadly, I have a feeling that these parents are mostly looking for a controlling role in their children’s lives, with an attitude that deems anything the parents don’t deem ‘normal’ as a situation that calls for coercion and correction, rather than loving support.
I think the SAFETY Act is needed to protect some students from some parents.
I agree 100%.
So very true. I hid the fact that I was queer from my fundamentalist Christian parents because I was genuinely terrified of getting sent to conversion therapy or tossed out on the streets, I knew it was a possibility with them. 20 years after high school, I finally came out, and wouldn’t you know it, they were not okay with it! Saw that coming! Haven’t spoken to any of my family in 4+ years, but I’m a grown man and able to take care of myself, imagine being a 16-year-old faced with that? God help these angry souls.
There’s a thing called authority and responsibility. Children are under their parent’s rights, not under their own rights. Parent’s are responsible for their childten. Children aren’t made responsible.