Most people do not know that The New Hampshire School Boards Association’s model policy JBAB is a direct attack against parental rights in New Hampshire. A parent in Manchester decided to challenge the school policy that withholds information from parents because it contains language which demands that District staff lie to Parents.
This is [part of] the policy that takes away our rights as a parent/legal guardian:
III. GUIDANCE
A. Privacy
The Board recognizes a student’s right to keep private one’s transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation at school. Information about a student’s transgender status, legal name, or gender assigned at birth also may constitute confidential information. School personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation to others, including parents and other school personnel, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure. Transgender and gender nonconforming students have the right to discuss and express their gender identity and expression openly and to decide when, with whom, and how much to share private information.
When contacting the parent or guardian of a transgender or gender nonconforming student, school personnel should use the student’s legal name and the pronoun corresponding to the student’s gender assigned at birth unless the student, parent, or guardian has specified otherwise. Any student who has a need or desire for increased privacy, regardless of the underlying reason, should be provided with a reasonable alternative to meet the need for that individual’s privacy, regardless of gender identity.
In other words, the NH School Boards Association model policy included a provision that requires school personnel to lie to parents about their children.
Back in September, the National School Boards Association, NSBA, came under fire recently when President Biden requested federal authorities investigate and prosecute concerned parents who were challenging their local school boards for controversial policies like Critical Race Theory, mask mandates, and pornographic books assigned to their children.
In October, the Biden administration then ordered the FBI to open an investigation. Parents and legislators across the country pushed back against the weaponizing of the FBI to go after parents who were exercising their free speech rights.
We have examples of the National School Boards Association and The New Hampshire School Boards Association waging war against parents. At what point is this going to stop? Parents are not the enemy of their children, and their right to due process is also being ignored. The current policy does not include any due process–parents are guilty and that’s it.
But in this case in Manchester, the parents are loving and accepting parents. They would accept their daughter and love her no matter what. They simply want to be informed in order to help her navigate her way through a difficult time.
In addition to this gross usurpation of parental rights, there is a federal law that also protects parental rights. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) guarantees parents the right to inspect their children’s records. So how does this policy not violate FERPA protections?
There are a few things you can do to stop these anti-parent organizations from trampling our most fundamental rights.
1) Contact your school board members and tell them you want them to stop paying dues out of the school budget to the NH School Boards Association. They do not represent all parents, and that money could be better spent on much-needed items in the school.
2) Contact your State Representatives, Senators, and Governor and tell them to support HB1033 which would prohibit recipients of state or local grants or appropriations from using such funds for lobbying. This way taxpayers aren’t forced to pay lobbyists to lobby against their fundamental rights.
There is no reason that school districts should be using your tax dollars so that a lobbying organization, that is hostile to parental rights, can lobby against you. This is a scam against good parents and may be violating a federal law that protects parental rights.
It’s good to see good parents standing up and fighting for their rights. Not only is this policy a direct attack on parental rights, parents are forced to pay the salaries of the lobbyists who are working against them. This is a gross violation of parental rights and it needs to stop.
