In December, our Jeff Charles brought you the story of how two teachers from the Escondido Union School District teachers were placed on administrative leave after they refused to hide the gender identities of students from their parents, citing their religious beliefs. The pair sued, and in September 2023, Roger Benitez, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, issued a preliminary injunction against the district and barred it from enforcing such policies.

The "new policy appears to undermine their own constitutional rights while it conflicts with knowledgeable medical opinion,” he wrote. 

Christian Teachers Barred From California Classroom Over Gender Policy

On Wednesday, Benitez weighed in on the matter again and told the school to get the teachers back in the classroom:

The order from Judge Roger Benitez says the teachers, who haven’t been allowed in their classrooms since last May, must be allowed to return by next Tuesday, Jan. 15. In September, Benitez blocked their employer, Escondido Union School District, from forcing them to comply with their policy to socially transition kids to different gender identities behind their parents’ backs.

"Both sides are expected to work in good faith going forward to resolve this matter," Benitez wrote Wednesday. 

“I’m shocked! I’m still processing. I cannot believe it,” one of the teachers, Lori Ann West, told a local media outlet.

The gender identity issue has been contentious in California as Attorney General Rob Bonta has escalated his attacks against teachers who don't believe it's their job to hide people's gender identities. In August 2023, he sued the Chino Hills School District after its board voted to require teachers to tell parents of changes in their students' preferred gender.

JUST IN — California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against Chino Valley Unified School District for requiring schools to notify parents if their children change their gender.

Parents erupted in cheers when the Chino Valley School Board voted 4 to 1 last month to… pic.twitter.com/nAE8vevx3N

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) August 28, 2023

Parents erupted in cheers when the Chino Valley School Board voted 4 to 1 last month to adopt the policy requiring schools to notify parents when their child seeks to identify or be treated as a gender other than their biological one.

Dean Broyles, a constitutional lawyer and part of the conservative National Center for Law & Policy, urged the Chino district not to force educators to lie or hide the truth: “It's been our position that any policy that allows a school to keep secrets from the parents regarding their children violates the parental rights since protected by the U.S. Constitution,” Broyles said.

Fighting against parents' rights is nothing new to Bonta:

This week Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is expected to run for governor in 2026, filed a legal brief with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to support a Northern California school district that socially transitioned an 11-year-old girl to a boy without her mother knowing. The girl’s mother lost her initial federal lawsuit against the policy and is appealing a ruling that conflicts with Benitez’s September judgment.

The issue boils down to rights: whose should be primary, the parent's or the student's?

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution gives a lot of deference to parents regarding their children's upbringing, education and care. But under California’s Education Code, students have certain privacy rights.

“That is the crux of the issue — what is more superior, a child's right to privacy or a parent's right to know about their child's life?" said Jillian Duggan-Herd, a family law attorney.

More and more parents around the country are sounding off and making themselves heard, declaring that the answer is simple: the parents should parent, not the government, not schools. In my view, official policies at schools or businesses or government agencies requiring employees to lie or misinform are quite simply unethical, regardless of what subject they're instructed to be dishonest about.