Tag: parental rights

Florida Enacts Historic Law Banning Minors from Attending “Drag” Shows, Strengthening Child Protection, Parental Authority, and Traditional Values

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed this week a law prohibiting minors from participating in “drag” shows.

The law is already in effect and responds to growing concern over children and teenagers being exposed to sexualized content at public events, where adults dressed in female attire perform in front of young audiences.

State authorities emphasize that the law aims to protect childhood, restore common sense, and reinforce parental authority in the education of their children.

Republican lawmakers defended the measure, highlighting that parents’ right to decide what their children are exposed to should take precedence over ideological agendas that promote sexualized behavior from an early age.

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California Schools Are About to See Waves of Children Flee After Gavin Newsom’s ‘Demonic’ ‘Kidnap’ Bill

While the world’s attention was focused on the release of the Jewish hostages taken by Islamic Hamas monsters, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that would make it easy for strangers to kidnap children from his state’s schools—without parental permission, naturally. While one story gloried in hostages freed from totalitarian barbarians, another set of totalitarians loosed a plot to take more. 

Think that’s overwrought? Hold my beer. 

Newsom signed AB 495 into law on Sunday night and pretended that the law, proffered by a Democrat to hide kids illegally in the country from Immigration authorities, kept parental rights intact and preserved parents’ relationships with their own children. Instead, it made every child in California schools, preschools, and state-licensed childcare facilities a target. 

Newsom had the hubris and temerity to tout it as “a bill to protect parents’ rights and children.”

That is false. Indeed, it’s worse than false. It’s a license allowing anyone to take your child without your permission and act as that child’s unapproved “guardian.” As the California Family Council (CFA) put it, “Anyone falsely claiming kinship can easily sign the affidavit, access a child, obtain medical care, and enroll them in another school. Even the most basic safeguard of a notary is not required to confirm the true identity of the person accessing your child. AB 495 violates fundamentally constitutionally protected parental rights, endangers California’s children, and will be appropriately legally challenged and struck down.”

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What Democrats Will Support In Order To Oppose Donald Trump

The list is staggering, really. And one need not go back to January to compile a collection of the most anti-democratic behavior and positions possible, all to save muh democracy. I can fill out this column with stuff just since Friday. 

In June of this year, The United States Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision in Mahmoud V. Taylor, in favor of parents objecting to sexually explicit LGBT material being used in school on religious exemption grounds. The case overturned the decision against both the rights of parents and the 1st Amendment’s freedom to practice religion by a district court judge nominated early in Joe Biden’s term. That judge’s name? Deborah Boardman. 

One might think that a leftist trial court judge getting spanked by the Supreme Court that hard would be the biggest black mark on her record. Wrong. On Friday, Judge Boardman ruled in the sentencing phase of the would-be assassin of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Nicholas Roske. 

Roske, in case you don’t recall, left his home in Simi Valley, California after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe V. Wade and returned the abortion issue where it belonged – to each state’s citizenry to decide. This was too much for Roske, who flew across the country and eventually arrived outside Justice Kavanuagh’s Maryland home with a Glock-17 with ammunition, zip ties, a tactical knife, pepper spray, a hammer, a screwdriver, a nail punch, a crowbar, duct tape, a pistol light, and padded boots for stealth. This was not a spontaneous murder he was plotting. 

Roske was found guilty by a jury of his peers. Federal sentencing guidelines for a crime like this vary between 324-405 months. The Department of Justice asked for 30 years, or 360 months, right in the middle of the sentencing guidelines. Boardman came back with 8 years, or 96 months. Why? Because sometime recently, Nicholas decided he was now trans and wants to be called Sophie. Boardman essentially threw all legal jurisprudence out the window and came up with this for justification.

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Education Department takes action on report Virginia high school worker helped student get abortion

he Education Department says it is taking “enforcement action” in response to reports a Virginia high school social work helped a student get an abortion without informing her parents.

The incident allegedly occurred at Centreville High School during the 2021-22 school year, according to a release Monday by the department.

In addition to allegedly scheduling the appointment for the 17-year-old student, the social worker also allegedly paid the clinic fees and “swore the girl to secrecy without informing the student’s parents,” the release also states.

Also, the social worker allegedly pressured another student to get an abortion, telling her she “had no other choice” and directing her to the same clinic for an abortion, which the student ultimately did not do.

The department started the enforcement action under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, which gives parents of students the right to be notified and say no to any non-emergency, invasive physical examination or screening that is required by a school district.

“It shocks the conscience to learn that school personnel in Fairfax have allegedly exploited their positions of trust to push abortion services on students without parental knowledge or consent,” said Candice Jackson, the department’s acting general counsel.

The department requested Fairfax County Public Schools to provide information by Oct. 17 on its policies and whether federal funds were used for “sensitive medical services, including abortion-related referrals or procedures.”

The allegations regarding the social worker were first detailed in August in a Substack post, according to The Washington Post. 

The school district launched an investigation into the allegations that month and said Tuesday that it “welcomes the opportunity to answer the DOE’s questions, based on our ongoing review of these 2021 allegations.”

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School district may have ‘intentionally deceived’ parents on girl’s gender transition, judge rules

AMichigan school district may have violated the due process rights of parents by “actively concealing” their daughter’s identification as a boy, referring to the girl by her given name with parents and her “masculine” name at school, a federal judge ruled, exacerbating conflicts in the lower courts that may trigger Supreme Court review.

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney, known for siding with a school district that banned students from wearing “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts, greenlit Dan and Jennifer Mead‘s Fourteenth Amendment claims against Rockford Public School District for violating their “fundamental rights as parents” and “deprivation of liberty without due process.”

He dismissed the Meads’ free exercise claim, however, saying surreptitious social transitions don’t “compel students (or their parents) to believe or do anything,” contrary to the mandatory exposure to LGBTQ “storybooks,” compelled school attendance and flag-salute requirement struck down by the Supreme Court in precedents from the 1940s to this year.

The President George W. Bush nominee noted the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is binding on him, last month upheld an Ohio gender identity school restroom policy as “facially neutral” in a challenge by Muslim and Christian students. (Their only potential relief was damages, since Ohio mandated restroom access by sex during the case.)

The 1st Circuit, which oversees Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island and has no Republican-nominated judges, reached the opposite conclusion as Maloney on parental rights and due process earlier this year, prompting parents Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri to petition the Supreme Court.

Several friend-of-the-court briefs are backing the Massachusetts parents, including detransitioners who abandoned transgender identities after medicalization and a prominent transgender child psychologist who argues parents are integral to transitions.

The 3rd Circuit, covering Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, heard a similar case this summer and already has precedents upholding parental authority, including an opinion joined by future Justice Samuel Alito on “actions that strike at the heart of parental decision-making authority on matters of the greatest importance.”

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley called Maloney’s ruling “potentially precedent-setting” on parental rights in public schools. He highlighted Maloney’s finding that the Meads’ allegations “show some amount of coercion or interference” from the district, implicating their right to make “fundamental decisions” for the girl.

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DOJ Declares School Dissent Protected Under First Amendment

Attorney General Pamela Bondi issued a memorandum to all United States Attorneys highlighting the Department of Justice’s policy to prevent and act upon violations of parental rights and First Amendment liberties in educational settings. 

Bondi directed United States Attorneys to work with federal, state, and local partners to identify and respond to credible threats against parents whose federal rights have been violated.

“The First Amendment guarantees the right of every citizen to speak freely, assemble peaceably, and petition the government for redress of grievances-including at public school board meetings,” the memo said. “These rights do not yield to political trends or bureaucratic convenience. While schools must maintain order, such authority cannot be used as a pretext to silence dissent or punish parents for expressing their views. 

The new memo says it will protect the right of parents to dissent during school board meetings. 

“Let me be clear: when school board members, administrators, and other government officials threaten law-abiding parents, they can and will be held accountable,” the letter said. 

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DOJ now looking for threats to parents’ rights, after Biden’s threats against parents themselves

he Department of Justice this week issued a memo directing the Civil Rights Division to work with federal, state and local partners to identify threats to parental rights and free speech in education, following years of parents’ rights being trampled on under the Biden administration. Many of the parents say their voices were silenced as well.

“Recent years have seen a disturbing trend in which state and local authorities have brought radical gender and racial ideology into our public schools while suppressing dissenting viewpoints,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in the memo. “Worse still, they have ignored, dismissed, and even retaliated against concerned parents who speak out against these morally and factually bankrupt ideologies and in defense of their own children.”

Bondi: Constitutional rights “do not yield to political trends”

“The First Amendment guarantees the right of every citizen to speak freely, assemble peaceably, and petition the government for redress of grievances—including at public school board meetings,” she added. “These rights do not yield to political trends or bureaucratic convenience. While schools must maintain order, such authority cannot be used as a pretext to silence dissent or punish parents for expressing their views.”

She further highlighted the rights of parents to exempt their children from instruction contrary to their religious beliefs, specifically pointing to gender and sexual orientation-related issues. “We are restoring the rule of law and returning the federal government to the people it serves. This Department stands with America’s parents,” her memo concluded.

Under the Biden administration, there have been multiple stories of parental rights being violated in the school system, resulting in protests and parents speaking out. Some have even been arrested at school board meetings. 

In October 2021, a 15-year-old student who identified as transgender was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two female students at two separate high schools in the Loudoun County, Virginia, Public School district.

According to local news station WUSA, the first assault was reported on May 28, 2021, at Stone Bridge High School, while another one allegedly occurred on Oct. 8 of that year at Broad Run High School.

The parent of one of the alleged victims was arrested at a school board meeting, where he shouted at officials for not doing more to protect his daughter. Ex-Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler was found guilty by a jury in 2023 for using his position as superintendent to retaliate against a teacher who cooperated with a grand jury to expose how the district covered up a sexual assault.

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Massachusetts School District Under Investigation for Forcing Kids to Take Graphic Sex and Gender Surveys, Ignoring Opt-Out Requests in Violation of Parental Rights

The Department of Education has launched a formal investigation into Burlington Public Schools in Massachusetts, following parents’ accusations that the district ignored their opt-out requests and forced students to participate in the 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS).

The probe, initiated by the Department’s Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO), is investigating potential violations of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). This federal law guarantees parents the right to exempt their children from surveys that ask for sensitive, private information.

The YRBS, administered to students at Marshall Simonds Middle School and Burlington High School in March, included explicit questions on topics like drug and alcohol use, mental health, sexual encounters, sexual orientation, and “gender identity.”

Parents were notified in advance about their opt-out rights, and several submitted written requests to exclude their children from the survey. Despite this, the district allegedly required the opted-out students to take it anyway, with at least one teacher reportedly forcing a student to participate over clear objections.

Screenshots of the survey questions, provided in a complaint filed by the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) and parents, reveal the invasive nature of the content.

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California AG Bonta ‘running out the clock’ to stop parental rights initiative, appeals court hears

California law required Attorney General Rob Bonta to write a neutral title and summary for a 2024 ballot measure to mandate parental notification when children request to be identified as the opposite sex in school records, limit girls’ sports to females and prohibit puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and genital surgery for gender-confused youth.

Having just sued a school district for the same parental notification policy, the Democratic attorney’s title for the Protect Kids of California Act seemed predictable: “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth.” 

His summary used the same framing, referring to males who identify as girls as “transgender female students,” claiming the parental notification mandate lacks an “exception for student safety” and referring to medicalized gender transitions as “gender-affirming health care.” 

Sixteen months after a trial judge upheld Bonta’s phrasing as “accurately and impartially” conveying the substance of the measure, which under Bonta’s language fell short of the required signatures for the ballot within the 180-day collection window, Protect Kids California’s crusade to give voters a direct say in the matter may founder on a technicality.

Polling suggests voters would approve the measure, with majority support for each of the three prongs, but an appeals panel repeatedly grilled the group’s lawyer at a hearing Monday on why the case wasn’t moot in light of Protect Kids California’s litigation choices.

The three judges essentially made Bonta’s argument for him as Liberty Justice Center counsel Emily Rae tried to redirect them toward Bonta’s “malfeasance,” for what its lawsuit called his “inaccurate, false, and biased” language. The panel, by contrast, asked deputy AG Malcolm Brudigam just a single question during the state’s argument.

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Child Protective Services Investigated Her 4 Times Because She Let Her Kids Play Outside

Parenting expectations are often unreasonably high—and so is the number of people who believe that kids can’t handle anything on their own.

Passersby too often see an unsupervised child and assume they are unsafe. So they call the authorities, who also often share those super-sized fears. Then parents get investigated simply for trusting their kids with some age-appropriate, location-appropriate independence.

Because of this frustrating cycle, I frequently get letters like the one below. When people ask why I spend so much time trying to pass Reasonable Childhood Independence laws, it’s for people like Emily Fields and her children. Fields is a mom in small-town Virginia who responded to my nonprofit Let Grow’s call for parents willing to speak to child protective services about why such laws are necessary. (Virginia unanimously passed its Reasonable Childhood Independence law in 2023.)

This letter is presented as a stark example of how little trust our country has in its parents and children anymore—and how misanthropic neighbors can weaponize the state at will.

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