Should California Schools Keep a Child’s Gender Identity Secret From Parents?

Commentary As battles rage between local school districts in California and the state attorney general, Rob Bonta, regarding whether or not schools should notify parents if their child identifies as transgender or nonbinary at school, I think it’s strange—as a California public teacher—that no one is clarifying the definitions of transgender and nonbinary. According to the California Department of Education’s Health Education Framework adopted in 2019 (p. 353), gender identity is defined as ever-changing and ever-expanding. People assume transgender means a girl identifying as a boy or a boy identifying a girl. However, according to 2023 trainings on sexual harassment used as part of state-mandated training for teachers and other employees, it’s much broader than this....