To parents on pronoun changes

In case you hadn't heard yet, Newsom recently signed a new law that bans rules requiring schools to notify parents of a child's pronoun change.

The Governor is basically telling all California parents that they are guilty of abuse rather than presumed innocent and trusted that no one will ever love their child more or sacrifice more to care for them best.

He has declared the State really knows your child best and what is best for them and you will be forced to co-parent with the state especially if you continue to send your children to public schools funded by your money where they are spending millions to expand Social Emotional Learning Programs (which sound good at first) that increase the staffing of counselors and social workers on campus.

These strangers will determine if your child needs help transitioning and protection from their parents without due process often during instructional time.

Aren't schools supposed to be neutral and not teaching any specific personal/religious beliefs as fact as to be inclusive of all religious children at school whether of more established faiths or secular ones?

Being able to change genders is the exact opposite of what many faiths believe and is not supported by science. Therefore, it’s rather a personal belief that has been adopted and promoted by the state like a secular religion which is unconstitutional.

It is foreseeable that it will take from academic time to pull children out of class to counsel or push into classrooms to teach about these topics lessening the learning time of an already struggling state with failing education performance.

Recently, in the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District according to CA State Standard Testing in Language Arts and Math in grades third thru eighth, somewhere between 40 to 80% of kids are failing to pass our state’s standards of which we hover around 50th in the Nation.

Are you ok parents with your children losing more academic instructional time when so many are already failing the basics? Schools are meant to be academic centers, not mental health or medical centers. That is to be outsourced at a separate time than school hours and place to actual specialists of a parent's choosing with the immense love, care, and overall knowledge of their child that parental involvement brings.

If the state suspects child abuse then there is an outside agency called Child Protective Services that they can call upon to begin the process of investigating properly to help children without taking more funding from the academic instruction of schooling and shifting it to non-academic type job positions that usually start above six figures in salary and grow from there.

But you don't strip the rights of millions of parents to be knowledgeable and involved in the mental struggles or physical changes of their child without first proving good cause beyond disagreeing on how to proceed with treatment.

That is imposing a personal belief on a family of which our Constitution clearly declared states are prohibited from adopting a singular religion (even be it a secular personal belief which has been equated to the same rights and protections as a religious belief). Therefore, one person's personal or religious belief cannot be forced upon another's differing belief in the free country of America.

Plus, as far as the science goes, there are conflicting studies as to whether we are preventing suicide or just postponing it if a child is allowed to transition. Moreover, if the concern is that parents don't have resources to treat, then schools should call them up and give families phone numbers to agencies that can help assist their child both mentally and financially.

Additionally, when the FUESD Board was asked last school year if they would adequately make an effort to inform the parents if their child had seen a school counselor or social worker as well as be given a copy of the notes of what was discussed in their meeting(s), there was crickets.

I take their silence to mean either you parents are not important enough to the decision making process of your child to follow up with an answer as to whether you will proactively or upon request be included intimately in especially life altering counseling conversations with your child, or the answer is no.

But we just don't want to tell you that we will ultimately be making certain major life decisions for your child, not you. Schools don't truly care whether they are just masking the serious struggles of depression and anxiety with a quick slap of a label that it is gender dysphoria even though many well intended caring people working with our children believe they do.

But the truth is in the follow-up. They won't be there to pick up the pieces emotionally and sacrifice the time if a child changes their minds nor foot the bill, etc., but you the amazingly committed parent will.

If the social transition only provides a temporary fix, which often the depression and anxiety resurfaces in children (research the multiple detransitioners stories out there) and a child then commits suicide or attempts it anyway because the real causes of the mental health issues weren't dealt with properly and the parent was left in the dark to be able to help seek more intense and appropriate care for their child's struggle, the school staff won't suffer the way the family will at the loss.

I realize there are some poor parents out there, but that doesn't mean you alienate the majority which are good.

So parents, I ask you, are you alright with the state and the schools thinking they know best for your child, love them more, and will protect them better from mental and physical health issues and abuse and fight harder than you to give your child the best care?

If the answer is no, then you need to be going to your school boards and demanding they get a backbone, be brave, stand in the gap for your families, and refuse to alienate and hide important information from parents or resign so someone else with courage can better serve the students and their families.

Better yet, until they do, make a way to pull your kids out of these indoctrination camps that produce poor results academically compared to other states and nations that are excelling and respect the intimate knowledge and care of parents.

School boards have exercised civil disobedience towards bad policy and laws before and waged legal battles and won in the past and it has caused Newsom and legislatures to backtrack.

Otherwise, you may very well be one of those parents kept in the dark and rendered powerless in your child's life one day. We would be naive to think the state’s power grab for the minds, hearts, and bodies of our children will stop with pronouns.

Don't believe me? Scroll to the bottom of this link to see the video and listen to this Latino CA mother's story:

https://truthpress.com/news/horror-mother-describe-how-california-stole-her-daughter-transitioned-her-and-caused-her-death/

Absolutely, heartbreaking that she even had to fight to get her daughter back from the state before her daughter committed suicide in the state's care by throwing herself in front of train after transitioning.

Compassion belongs to both sides of the argument. We can have compassion and treat with value both those with gender dysphoria and those who are being misdiagnosed with gender dysphoria too. Make sure as a parent your heart is hearing the cries of both.

I believe in you, my fellow parents! Tell the state that you believe in your ability to parent too and are not alright with losing your God-given inalienable rights to parent your child just because they are too lazy to take the time to properly investigate a child's parents when there are adequate signs of potential abuse by the few bad parents out there.

Jacqueline Castillo