Kids Are Not the State’s

Authors: John Stonestreet | Dr. Timothy D. Padgett

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill that will ban school districts from notifying parents about student gender identity changes. This move is in response to initiatives by several parents’ rights groups in California and a growing list of conservative states to ensure that moms and dads are kept in the loop if their child asks to identify as a gender different from what’s on their school record. Teachers and administrators will now be free to “keep the secret,” if the child so wishes.

In response, Elon Musk announced he would move the multibillion-dollar SpaceX corporation from California to Texas. While his stand is encouraging, the fact that he would even have to make a decision like this is disheartening to say the least. 

The new California law assumes that children belong to the state, and that the state is a better guardian for children than parents. However, according to a recent report published by The Federalist, one in 10 public school kids have experienced some kind of sexual abuse from a school employee, a shocking number that is far higher than the well-publicized scandal within the Roman Catholic Church. According to The Federalist:  

For a variety of reasons, ranging from embarrassment to eagerness to avoid liability, elected or appointed officials, along with unions or lobbying groups representing school employees, have fought to keep the truth hidden from the public. 

And yet, in various ways, cultural and political leaders continue to act as if children belong to them and even need them to be safe. For example, earlier this year, NPR bemoaned the fact that more families were leaving public and private schools, turning to homeschool. This, they feared, could lead to a lack of state oversight, inadequate education, neglect, and even abuse.  

The story of Dan and Jennifer Mead suggests otherwise. The Michigan couple was very active in their 11-year-old autistic daughter’s education at East Rockford Middle School. They worked closely with her counselors and teachers, even going out for ice cream with them. It was, therefore, a great surprise when they learned that those same school staff members were “transitioning” their daughter at school, using boy pronouns and a boy name, upon their daughter’s request and without informing the parents. They even altered her official record, but then would edit all communication to the parents. 

The Meads only found out what these school officials were doing when they were sent a document that referred to their daughter using a male name. They asked the school for clarification thinking they received information for a different student. The school refused to reply with an explanation. When the Meads learned what they were hiding, they withdrew their daughter from the district and secured legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom. 

What the ADF’s Senior Counsel Kate Anderson had to say about the Mead’s case applies to our wider societal problem: 

Parents, not the government, have the right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children. … Schools should never deliberately hide vital information from parents, yet that’s exactly what the Rockford Public School District did. … By intentionally concealing this information from the Meads, the school district violated their constitutionally protected right to make decisions regarding their daughter’s education and wellbeing.

The American educational system has been captured by what Logan Lancing has called the cult of gender theory. Just as religious cults gain converts by separating people from their families, activists and educators paint parents and family as hostile to the child’s health. In the Mead’s case, school officials decided they knew what was best for their daughter and separated her from those who loved her the most. 

Christians should be the first to proclaim that kids do not belong to the state. Like all human beings, children belong first to God, and He has entrusted them to mothers and fathers. Only in loco parentis do secondary authorities like relatives, neighbors, and teachers step in. To reverse this order has more in common with the worst totalitarian regimes of history than with nature, tradition, and God’s word.