Kansas Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach announced Thursday that multiple school districts in his state began “socially transitioning” children behind the backs of parents.
At least four school districts in Kansas allow teachers and administrators to use different pronouns and names for students who claim to identify as a different gender than their biological sex.
That initial step, known as “socially transitioning,” has been found by several studies to push children further down the path of transitioning into medical interventions, including the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and genital surgeries.
“A child changing his or her gender identity has major long-term medical and psychological ramifications,” Kobach said in a press release. “Parents should know, and have an opportunity to be involved in, such an important aspect of their well-being.”
Last year, the Kansas Republican challenged six school districts in their policies regarding parental notification when a child makes a claim about their gender and announced on Thursday that four of them, Kansas City, Topeka, Olathe, and Shawnee Mission, “dug in their heels and essentially asserted that school administrators know better than parents.”
Two districts, Belle Plaine and Maize, indicated recently to Kobach’s office that they were not cutting parents out of the process, though at least Belle Plaine appears to have had the policy at some point.
Kobach’s office contacted the four districts to inform them their policies violate parental rights and further questioned whether districts received input from parents before pursuing their secret transition policies.
The inquiry came after Parents Defending Education conducted an investigation into the school districts, finding policies explicitly stating parents should be kept in the dark about claimed alternative genders.
“General Kobach used a list of parental exclusion policies originally exposed by PDE to hold districts in the state accountable for removing parents from decision-making involving their child’s well-being,” PDE Vice President Caroline Moore said. “Parents have become completely demoralized with how their children are being turned against them at the hand of public schools. Turning up the pressure on these administrators to rescind policies gives parents hope for what’s to come in Kansas and elsewhere, when politicians stop playing the blame game and hold districts accountable for unconstitutional policies.”
According to letters Kobach sent to the school districts and the Kansas Association of School Boards, Kansas City had a policy stating, “School personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation to others, including parents and other school personnel, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure.”
The policies of other districts have similar wording, but according to WIBW, Topeka General Director of Instructional Services Dr. Aarion L. Gray said his district’s policies comply with the law.
“Topeka Public Schools believes education is a cooperative effort between the parent, their student, and USD 501′s [Topeka] quality educators,” he said. “USD 501 works collaboratively with parents and their student(s) to protect their legal rights while maintaining a positive learning environment for all.”
Kobach also contacted the Kansas Association of School Boards, citing evidence the group had a hand in pushing such policies because their authorization for school districts to reproduce the policies was cited in Belle Plaine documents.
Calling out the Kansas Association of School Boards, Kobach wrote in the letter that parents have a “fundamental constitutional right to direct both the education and upbringing of their children” and that “it would be arrogant beyond belief to hide something with such weighty consequences from the very people (parents) that both law and nature vest with providing for a child’s long-term well-being.”
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“That a Kansas school district could so cavalierly allow a minor child — whom science tells us does not even have a fully formed brain until into his or her twenties — to decide whether his or her parents know about such things is shockingly irresponsible,” Kobach continued, asking if “KASB surrendered to woke gender ideology to the point of jettisoning both propriety and common sense.”
Kobach sought information regarding KASB’s support for such policies, as well as identifying the personnel who had a hand in drafting them and lawyers and medical professionals consulted in their production. According to the press release, the organization has not responded.
