Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin replaced a woke policy with one centered on parents’ rights. This came hours after an LGBT rights organization called Equality Virginia started trying to pressure school districts.
The Daily Wire’s disclosure that Loudoun County officials made misleading statements about a rape in a school restroom by a boy dressed in a skirt, and attempted to throw the rape victim’s father in jail, helped Youngkin win the governor’s race in 2021.
This came amid a scandal over the quality of Virginia’s schools.
Parents Have the Right to Know Details About Their Children
In order to prevent the exclusion of transgender kids, the previous model policy stated schools should “remove gender-based practices.” The policy included examples like homecoming kings and queens and father-daughter dances.
It detailed how school systems should establish gay clubs, permit transgender students to stay with kids of the opposite biological sex amid camping events, and mandate teachers receive “LGBT+ accepting” training.
Parents of Virginia will settle for nothing less than @GovernorVA achieving the full protection of Parental Rights. Anything short will be considered a failure of campaign promises. He will not let us down. @Think_Schultz @JasonMiyaresVA @WinsomeSears @alisciaandrews https://t.co/cStJD0KOmM
— #ArmyOfParents (@ArmyOfParents) September 8, 2022
The model policies must follow “evidence-based best practices,” according to the law.
Parental Participation is Vital
The U.S. Constitution is used as support for the new policy, which is very different.
As noted in the statement, “The First Amendment prohibits government actors from requiring people to adhere to or accept any certain ideological convictions.”
“The rights of parents to know details about their children and restrictions on the ability of the government to usurp parents’ proper roles are established beyond question by the United States Constitution, the Virginia Constitution, federal law, state law, and pertinent case law.”
In the meantime write to your state representatives along with @GovernorVA @JasonMiyaresVA and @WinsomeSears and demand that parents rights be restored in Virginia!
— Moms For Liberty Loudoun 🇺🇸 (@Moms4LibLoudoun) September 13, 2022
According to the policy, “School officials will refer to each child only by their own name or by any nickname typically used in conjunction with the name that exists in the child’s official record.”
In addition, educators and other pupils cannot be forced to “address or refer to students in any way that would violate their rights.”
This prohibits teachers from using pronouns or names that are not on the student’s official record.
Furthermore, “No directive, instruction, training, or other written material produced by the School Division may promote or educate teachers to conceal material facts about a student from the parent.”
“The proper involvement of pupils shall be determined by sex for any athletic program or activity that is currently divided by sex.”
Educational institutions are mandated by law to adopt policies that resemble the state model policy, but in the past, some districts in left-wing northern Virginia have flat-out refused to carry out the Republican governor’s directives.
Even while the last governor was in office, they used state commitments as an excuse for various actions like closing schools. The new policy was developed by Assistant Superintendent Elizabeth Schultz and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow.
This article appeared in Conservative Cardinal and has been published here with permission.
