Labrador Letter – Fighting for Parental Rights

Every parent knows that raising a child means making difficult decisions. You teach them how to cross the street, who to trust, what values to live by, and how to navigate an increasingly complicated world. Parents carry that responsibility every day. That authority and relationship do not disappear when a child walks into a public school, crosses a state line, or if a child disagrees with a parent. It certainly does not disappear because someone in government believes that the state knows what is best for that child.

This is the core principle behind two cases where I have recently led coalitions of states in defending the constitutional rights of parents against ideological zealotry.  Both these cases are happening in our backyard and with the real chance that Idaho children and families can be harmed as a result.

The first is Mirabelli v. Bonta, where a junior high school treated a girl as a boy for most of a year and kept it from her parents, who found out only after she attempted suicide. The parents moved her to another public school and specifically asked to be told if it happened again, and the district refused, pointing to state policy. The State of California lost this case at the district court level, but has appealed it to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – the same appellate court whose decisions Idaho is bound to.  California is fighting to keep this misguided policy, and unfortunately, more than 1,200 school districts nationwide have adopted similar rules, covering roughly 12.3 million students.