California’s SAFETY Act obstructs parental rights

On July 15, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 1955 titled the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY Act). 

This is radically progressive legislation that prohibits parents from controlling the upbringing of their children. Public schools may not “disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent.”

The law is constructed around the idea that “Pupils have a constitutional right to privacy when it comes to sensitive information about them” but makes no reference to case law. 

However, courts have routinely affirmed the precedent that the government cannot obstruct the relationship between parent and child unless extenuating circumstances are relevant. 

Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) and its’ progeny, Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), are both unanimous decisions by the Supreme Court finding that parents may control the upbringing of their child as they see fit under the protections of the 14^th Amendment. 

While students certainly have a right to privacy, California cannot effectively disregard a century of precedent under the misguided notion that privacy always trumps parental rights. 

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