(Developing: Will be updated as warranted)
Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach on Thursday called out four Kansas school districts, accusing them of hiding the gender identity of students from their parents.
Kobach said the districts – Kansas City, Olathe, Topeka and Shawnee Mission – weren’t telling parents that students may be using a different name or pronouns at school.
Last year, Kobach sent letters to six Kansas school districts challenging their policies requiring or allowing school district staff to conceal from parents a student’s “transgender” or “gender non-conforming” status.
“In short, the policies allow schools to ‘socially transition’ students without the parent’s knowledge or consent,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
“A child changing his or her gender identity has major long-term medical and psychological ramifications,” Kobach said in a statement.
“Parents should know, and have an opportunity to be involved in, such an important aspect of their well-being,” he said.
The attorney general notified the districts that their policies violate parental rights, although one school district said Kobach didn’t back up that claim and a second district said it had no formal policy adopted by its board for pronoun use.
The Shawnee Mission superintendent said Kobach was misinformed and criticized him for labeling district officials as “woke.”
Kobach said he asked whether the districts collected parental input before adopting the transgender notification policies.
He said two school districts – Belle Plaine and Maize – responded that they would immediately rescind or amend their policies addressing the issue.
In a letter sent on Dec. 7 to the Kansas Association of School Boards, Kobach said that a nationwide investigation by the organization Parents Defending Education determined
that multiple Kansas school districts had policies stating that their staff should keep a student’s transgender status hidden from parents.
Kobach said he suspected the school boards association had a hand in helping several of the districts in developing their policies, based partly on its opposition to a new law banning transgender athletes from participating in interscholastic sports for females.
Parents Defending Education describes itself as a “national grassroots organization,” although it has been connected to conservative advocacy groups and media.
Nicole Neily, who previously worked for the Cato Institute think tank and the Independent Women’s Forum, is the group’s founder.
Caroline Moore is the group’s vice president. She has worked for several nonprofits including the Federalist Society and the Mercatus Center.
Kobach sent a letter to Shawnee Mission School District Superintendent Michelle Hubbard, pointing to a document that Parents Defending Freedom posted on its website.
The document – titled “Transgender Practices & FAQ” – says all students have the right to be addressed by the names and pronouns that correspond with their gender identity they assert at school, according to Kobach’s letter.
The document says that all school staff and peers are expected to respect a student’s name and pronoun once they’ve been made aware, according to Kobach’s letter.
The principal, in consultation with the student first, will ensure that the student’s request is honored while working to engage and include the family “to the greatest extend possible for support,” Kobach reports.
Kobach said the phrase “to the greatest extent possible” is significant.
“If the family opposes…transition,” he wrote, “will the building principal simply say nothing to the student’s family about the student’s transition?” the attorney general said.
“It would arrogantly be 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,” Kobach told the Shawnee Mission School District.
“That a Kansas school district could so cavalierly allow a minor child – who science tells us does not even have a fully formed brain until his or her twenties – is shockingly irresponsible,” Kobach wrote.
“USD 512 has apparently surrendered to woke gender ideology to the point of jettisoning both propriety and common sense,” he wrote.
Kobach used the same language in letters sent to the Topeka, Kansas City and Olathe school districts as well as the Kansas Association of School Boards.
Abhishek Kambli, deputy attorney general for special litigation, said there is no state law requiring parental notification.
“There is also no statute that explicitly protects free speech, the right to own property or a number of other constitutional rights,” Kambli said.
“We are comfortable that the attorney general’s position is supported by decades of case law saying parents have a right to control the education and upbringing of their children,” he said in a statement.
Shawnee Mission’s superintendent fired back a response in mid-December, criticizing the attorney general for not providing any specific evidence of a district parent having their rights violated.
“Your letter appears to be primarily informed by misinformation from inconspicuously partisan sources, as well as by incorrect assumptions about our administrator guidance for working with transgender families,” Hubbard wrote.
“Without citing any incident of a SMSD parent allegedly having their legal rights violated, you attack our board members and our administrative leadership with the statement that ‘USD 512 has apparently surrendered to woke gender ideology.'”
“Use of the political ‘woke’ labeling as an insult is disappointing to see from our state’s attorney general,” she wrote.
She said the district’s board is made up of diverse individuals who were elected.
Likewise, she said, the district’s administration is composed of diverse individuals, who have “devoted their professional careers to bettering and advancing public education for Kansas children.”
“We are not caricatures from the polarized media, but rather real people who work very hard in the face of intense pressure on public schools to serve our students and our
families every day in compliance with applicable law.”
The Olathe school district issued a response disputing Kobach’s allegations.
“Olathe Public Schools does not have, nor has it ever had, a formal policy adopted by the
Board of Education regarding gender identity and pronoun usage,” the district said.
“The document noted in the press release from Attorney General Kris Kobach references internal administrative guidelines to assist our staff and administrative teams as situations arise on a case-by-case basis, not a formal policy.
“As a district, it is always our intent and practice to work directly and partner with
individual families and students as situations arise to ensure we are providing the appropriate and necessary support.”
No responses were immediately available from the Topeka and Kansas City school districts on Thursday afternoon.
