On Thursday, the Rocklin school board voted 4-1 in favor of a policy requiring teachers and staff to notify parents if their child requests to be identified as a gender that does not align with the sex assigned to them at birth. The board also amended the district’s non-discrimination policy to make it consistent with the changes.

Board member Michelle Sutherland was the only one to vote against the proposal.

The heated meeting went on for over six hours. More than one hundred parents, students, and teachers from both inside and outside the district formed a line that wrapped around the exterior of the building for an opportunity to address the board.

Of those who spoke, the majority were opposed to the policy. Several community members voiced concerns about potential harm to students outed to families who do not accept them. Some related first or secondhand experiences of transgender youth being beaten, subjected to conversion therapy, or thrown out of the house after being outed to their parents.

A transgender Rocklin High School student, whose anonymous letter to the board was read aloud at the meeting, told The Flash that he has “considered coming out at school many times” but wants to wait until he is financially independent before doing so at home because he fears his parents may react negatively. “… a lot of the time peers are more open to these sorts of things than parents are,” he said. “Perhaps because of the generational gap, perhaps because there’s more empathy and understanding at school. But it’s definitely easier to be out at school because you’re going to leave the school behind. Eventually, you’re going to graduate and go to college and probably never meet these people ever again. But these are the parents who have for the rest of your life. And many of the people I know that are out at school are not out at home to their parents because they don’t yet feel comfortable.”

Supporters of the policy, however, said that it is within the legal rights of parents to know what actions the school takes regarding their children. They lauded the new requirements as facilitating open communication between parents and children.

Board President Julie Hupp stressed that the policy triggers only when a student requests the school to change their name or pronouns or to access sex-segregated activities or facilities. She said that it does not apply to a student’s personal relationships with peers, teachers, and counselors — another area of concern for many who spoke out against the changes.

Legal repercussions

On Wednesday, a San Bernardino Superior Court judge blocked the enforcement of a similar policy passed by Chino Valley Unified School District. Some of those who spoke at the Rocklin meeting criticized the board for potentially wasting taxpayer dollars, which could otherwise be spent educating students, on a costly court battle.

The same day, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a statement condemning the board’s approval of what he called a dangerous and discriminatory “forced outing policy.”

Nevertheless, Trustee Tiffany Saathoff said that the board “received very clear legal counsel that the policy … does not break state or federal law.” She said that parents’ rights supersede state guidance, at least until the matter is decided in court.

California Assemblyman Bill Essayli, the author of the failed statewide bill after which the Rocklin and Chino Valley USD policies are modeled, spoke at the meeting to encourage the board to stay the course regardless of the legal consequences. “This is a fight we will take, and it’s a fight we want, and we will take it to the Supreme Court,” he said, adding that he is confident that the result will “reaffirm parental rights in the United States.”

Until then, transgender and gender non-conforming students of Rocklin USD are left in an uncertain position. As for the anonymous student who has previously considered coming out at school, whether he still chooses to do so “will depend on whether or not legal action is taken, and what the environment at school is like.” June Davis, a junior at Rocklin High School who is also transgender, said, “To force disclosure at the child’s expense will not result in anything other than those exploring their gender identity to further hide in the closet.”