Two important Bills will be heard in Concord this week supporting parental rights, so who can oppose that? You can bet there will be a line of people waiting to testify against parental rights. They will use the excuse that parents cannot be trusted with their own children.
Keep in mind we have laws that are aimed at parents who are abusive or neglectful. Those who support parental rights also support strict laws against parents who put a child in harm’s way. That will not change, and we should strengthen those laws when necessary.
But now we have school policies in place that tell staff members to lie to parents. In school board policy JBAB, it says that school personnel are to lie to parents if their children change their name to one that is of the opposite sex. A child who may be struggling with their gender needs parental love and support, but how do they offer that if school staff has been instructed to lie to parents? Policy JBAB says:
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.
This policy was first introduced by The New Hampshire School Boards Association several years ago. Many schools in New Hampshire adopted this policy even though it conflicts with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) law that says:
FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children’s education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are “eligible students.”
In addition to this gross violation of parental rights, we are now discovering that school personnel have been sharing students’ mental health records with outside sources. Not only does this violate a parent’s right to keep their child’s mental health records private, it goes against ethical guidelines a school counselor must follow. Research on children always requires privacy protections and informed consent. Sadly, we’ve moved beyond ethical practices to a place where there is disdain and contempt for supporting parents as they raise their children.
The last time Parental Rights Legislation was introduced in the legislature, we heard from several organizations painting parents as abusers. What happened to due process? What happened to innocent until proven guilty? That doesn’t exist in their world.
We are now seeing these same organizations start their battle against parents. You should know who they are, and you should make sure that your voice is heard too.
The hearings are scheduled on March 7th at the Legislative Building behind the State House.
The first one is at 9 am in Room 101 before the Senate Education Committee. SB 272 – Establishing a parents’ bill of rights in education.
The second hearing is at 1:15 pm, Room 207-208, before the House Children and Family Law Committee. HB 10 – Establishing the parental bill of rights.
Parents need to show up and let the committee know that they are not a criminal. We do not give up our parental rights when our children walk through the door of their public school.
Here are a few organizations that oppose parental rights in New Hampshire.
