Kevin Kiley Demands Increased Parental Control In K-12 Classrooms: ’This Is Absolute Madness’

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) discussed proposed legislation about parental consent for students' pronoun changes.

Transcript

00:00The gentleman from California, Representative Kiley.

00:03Thank you, Mr. Chair, for bringing this bill forward.

00:06I'm glad to co-sponsor it, and it's a bill that has become necessary

00:11because of the way that many districts across the country,

00:15and in the case of California, an entire state,

00:18have interposed themselves between students and their parents

00:22in the most abhorrent of ways.

00:25So let's just look at what's happened in my state of California.

00:28You have many, many districts, many documented cases

00:31of a school that has actively encouraged a child

00:35to identify with a new gender.

00:39And they did this without the parent's knowledge,

00:42without the parent's consent,

00:44and then they lied to the parents about it.

00:46We have many documented cases of a parent confronting the school

00:50and the school or personnel lying about it

00:53and even fabricating and doctoring documents,

00:56changing the child's name on assignments that were handed in.

01:01I mean, just imagine what this looks like in practice

01:03if you are not allowed to say that the child is using a different name

01:07or a different gender identity.

01:09So you're using one name and one set of pronouns

01:11with the child in class, and their parents come in,

01:14and suddenly you have to switch.

01:15You're using a different name and a different set of pronouns.

01:18This is absolute madness.

01:20So because of the prevalence of this across our state,

01:24a number of responsible districts came forward and said,

01:28we're not going to do this.

01:29We're going to put protections for students and their families

01:31into our district policy

01:32and say that this is something that parents have the right to know about.

01:36So how does the state respond,

01:37the attorney general with the backing of the governor?

01:39They immediately start suing these districts.

01:42They start filing lawsuits trying to get binding legal judgments

01:46that will force these districts to lie to parents.

01:50And then on top of that,

01:52the supermajority legislature passes a bill

01:56and the governor signs it that as a matter of state law

01:59says that we are not going to allow districts to tell parents the truth.

02:05Now, thankfully, many of those lawsuits are being rejected by the courts

02:10and the Trump administration has now launched an investigation

02:15challenging that new state law

02:18for violating the Federal Education Rights and Privacies Act,

02:22otherwise known as FERPA.

02:24But this bill is very necessary for a number of reasons.

02:28And, you know, the other side has brought up

02:30about how children with gender dysphoria

02:33are at an increased risk of suicide.

02:35That is precisely why this bill is so important.

02:39Think about that.

02:40You have a child who has a condition

02:42that is known to be associated

02:44with an extremely increased risk of suicidal ideations,

02:49and the district says,

02:50we're going to hide that information from parents?

02:53This is something that parents absolutely need to know about.

02:56It's monstrous to say,

02:57we're not going to let you know

02:58that your child is at an increased risk of suicide.

03:02And finally, I want to address this idea

03:03that there's somehow a contradiction

03:05between this bill and the commitment our committee has

03:08to local control and education.

03:11That is absolutely not the case.

03:13We support local control and education

03:15because we believe that curriculum and school offerings

03:18and the different options available to parents

03:20should reflect the values of the community,

03:22that there should be direct input from the community

03:24and local elected officials,

03:26and a whole host of other reasons,

03:28such as allowing for innovation

03:30and the fact that schools generally

03:33are not run best from Washington, D.C.

03:35But that doesn't mean that we can't have civil rights laws.

03:39We have civil rights laws in this country

03:41that provide a basic level of protection

03:44for the dignity of each person,

03:46and there are particular civil rights laws

03:49that are attendant to an educational context,

03:51including protections against discrimination

03:54on the basis of sex,

03:55and including FERPA,

03:56the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

04:00So we will continue to actively promote

04:02local control and education.

04:04I think we're going to see enormous progress

04:06in that respect from this committee,

04:08from the new administration,

04:09and it will have great benefits across the country.

04:11But we will not permit federal education dollars

04:15to be used to create a dangerous wall of separation

04:18between kids and their parents.

04:20I yield back.

04:21I thank the gentleman.

04:22I recognize the gentlelady from Connecticut,

04:28Representative Hayes.

Category

Transcript

Recommended