DOJ Opens New Front Against California School Districts
The Justice Department has launched investigations into four California school districts for allegedly teaching students about sexual orientation and gender ideology without parental notification.
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil rights division, dispatched a letter Monday to San Francisco Unified School District initiating a compliance review. The investigation will examine whether SFUSD violates Title IX by instructing teachers that parental permission or notification is unnecessary when discussing LGBTQ family matters and gender diversity with students.
Three additional districts face similar scrutiny: Graves Elementary School District, Santa Rita Union School District, and Soledad Unified School District.
The investigations extend beyond curriculum concerns. Each school district appears to have adopted policies allowing students to share sex-segregated facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms with members of the opposite biological sex, while also permitting biological males to participate on girls’ athletic teams, as New York Post reports.
Parents do not send their children to school to be indoctrinated, denied their personal privacy, or, in the case of girls, robbed of athletic opportunities, Dhillon stated.
Districts Bypass Parental Consent Requirements
The DOJ letter reveals that SFUSD mandates teaching on queer and trans-identity-affirming topics, with the California Department of Education imposing no parental permission or notification requirements for such instruction.
The SFUSD LGBTQ Family and Gender Diversity Elementary Teaching Guide explicitly states that discussions about gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning individuals do not constitute human sexuality or family life education and therefore do not require parent notification or permission under California Education Code.
The guide further clarifies that parent notification remains unnecessary when teaching about LGBTQ family and gender diversity or referencing LGBTQ persons in curriculum outside formal sexual health education classes.
California law currently mandates parental notice and opt-out provisions apply to all or part of sex education.
Federal Funding at Risk
The Justice Department emphasized it has reached no conclusions at this stage. However, depending on investigation outcomes, school districts could face loss of federal funding.
Dhillon referenced recent Supreme Court opinions in Mirabelli and Mahmoud, asserting that policies and practices of this nature constitute illegal conduct under Title IX. The assistant attorney general pledged the Justice Department remains committed to halting such violations.
With information from New York Post
