Governor Newsom signed the AB 1955 bill in July, clearly stipulating that schools cannot notify parents when students undergo gender transition. Faced with the escalating transgender movement, California parents who have lost their right to be informed wonder how to protect their children.
Larry Pegram, a 79-year-old policy activist with 50 years of experience, was interviewed by Epoch Times, offering advice to California parents. Pegram, a former two-term San Jose council member, is the founder and chairman of the Informed Parents of Silicon Valley organization. The organization focuses on protecting parental rights, enhancing parental control over children’s education, promoting transparency between schools and parents, and improving STEM test scores. All services provided are free.
Pegram stated that the AB 1955 bill has been signed by the governor and is now law that all school districts in California must comply with. In response to this situation, parents should maintain very open communication with their children. Through honest dialogue, many issues can be prevented or avoided.
He believes that this communication should be cultivated from a young age. During dinner time, parents should talk with their children about what happened at school, what they learned today, what they heard, understand their learning situation at school, and judge if the education at school aligns with the family’s values.
“If everyone in the family sits at the dinner table, looking at their phones, texting, or checking emails, communication cannot take place. Parents and children need to have face-to-face interactions, rather than relying on text messages,” Pegram said.
Pegram thinks that parents should establish rules, boundaries, and standards for their children. It is crucial to create time and space without electronic devices or phones. Parents can also require children to leave their phones in another room when going to sleep. Many children still browse websites and send texts in bed after lights out, impacting their sleep.
He believes that the current critical race theory, inclusivity, diversity, equity studies, and some so-called health education are not suitable for adolescents. Parents need to understand and care about what their children are learning at school. Parents bear responsibility for their children’s financial, physical, social, mental, and educational growth and must actively monitor their development. In the past, parents only had to send their children to school and believe they would learn reading, writing, and arithmetic, but now parents must remain highly vigilant about what their children are being taught at school.
Given the radical teaching content in California public schools, Pegram advises parents to visit their website ip-ca.org, fill out and submit an opt-out notice form.
He explained that parents can visit their website, click the green button at the top, scroll down to the bottom of the page, fill in contact information and their child’s information, including grade, school, and age. At the bottom, parents can sign either using a finger or a cursor. Once submitted, a complete opt-out notice will be automatically sent to the child’s principal and school district board members’ email.
He also mentioned that the opt-out notice is a standardized form, and once parents sign it, their child will opt out of all activities allowed by California law. For specific opt-out notice content and format, please refer to the sample text on the website.
According to the law, the opt-out notice needs to be resigned and submitted to the school every year. Therefore, parents need to resign the opt-out notice before the start of each school year. The opt-out notice applies to all students from kindergarten to 12th grade.
The Informed Parents of Silicon Valley organization cooperates with the Pacific Justice Institute to provide legally binding opt-out notices. All parents of students attending public schools can visit the Informed Parents of Silicon Valley website, follow the instructions, and choose to opt-out of courses and related activities. The entire process takes about two minutes.
Pegram stated that thousands of people have already filled out opt-out notices on their website, with mostly positive feedback. However, as their delivery method is new to many schools, some schools are unsure how to handle the notices. They have set up an opt-out hotline at 669-307-1953. If parents encounter school doubts regarding opt-out notices, they can call this number for assistance.
He said that the opt-out notice itself is a legally binding document, and if the school has questions, they simply need to refer to the California Education Code.
He also mentioned instances where principals called parents, expressing uncertainty about what courses their child needed to opt-out of and requested a meeting. He said this behavior constitutes intimidation. If parents receive a call from the principal requesting a meeting, he suggests parents ask the school to provide reasons for the meeting in writing. Typically, schools are reluctant to write letters as they do not want to leave written evidence.
If the school fails to comply with the parent’s opt-out notice, parents can report the situation to the Pacific Justice Institute. They will evaluate and decide whether to represent parents in taking action against the school. The Pacific Justice Institute is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to protecting religious freedom, parental rights, and civil liberties, offering legal assistance to parents for free.
Pegram stated that the only way to ensure the success of the opt-out notice is for the child to come home and inform the parents about what they did at school or what courses they attended, and then the parents can notify them. ◇