Matt Tennis, who was a member of the Chico Unified School District Board at the time that the lawsuit by Aurora Regino was filed against CUSD and is listed on the lawsuit as one of the defendants, has provided the following statement to Action News Now:
“Chico Unified seems to care more about promoting gender fluidity and sabotaging parents than they do about their failing test scores for English and Math. The district should settle with this aggrieved mother as soon as possible and change their treacherous parental secrecy policy.”
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(ORIGINAL STORY)
The 9th Circuit United States Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Friday vacated the decision of the district court to dismiss the case filed by Chico mother Aurora Regino against the Chico Unified School District.
Court documents from the U.S. Court of Appeals shows that the judges found that the district court did not address the distinction between facial and as-applied challenges.
The Court of Appeals concluded that the district court erred in its analysis of Regino’s as-applied claims and that its analysis of Regino’s facial claims was flawed.
The panel therefore vacated the dismissal of the case by the district court and remanded the case for further proceedings.
Several years ago, Regino’s daughter, who was attending 5th grade at Sierra View Elementary School in Chico, visited with a school counselor after beginning to feel depressed and anxious.
At that time, the daughter had experienced significant changes in her home life over the preceding months, including the death of her grandfather and her mother’s completion of treatment for breast cancer.
Court documents show that during these visits, the counselor addressed issues of gender identity and sexuality.
In December of 2021, Regino’s daughter began to feel like she may be a boy.
At around the same time, Regino’s daughter discussed her anxiety and depression with the counselor, but did not bring up her feelings about her gender identity.
In early 2022, the daughter met with the school counselor and told her that “she felt like a boy”. The counselor asked whether the daughter would like to go by a different name and whether she would prefer to be addressed with male pronouns.
The daughter responded to the counselor that she would prefer male pronouns and to be addressed as “J.S.”. When asked if she would like her mother to be notified, the daughter responded that she did not want her mother to know because she feared Regino would be mad at her.
At the conclusion of the visit, the counselor walked the daughter to the classroom and informed the teacher that she was now going by “J.S.” and male pronouns. Court documents show that the teacher began addressing to the daughter in this manner, and the counselor arraigned for other school personnel to refer to the girl as “J.S.” and with male pronouns.
In April of 2022, the daughter, after being encouraged to speak with family members first before telling her mother about her new gender identity, told her grandmother about her gender identity, and the grandmother promptly told Regino about it.
That same month, Regino contacted the school to report that the counselor and other personnel had not told her that they had begun to refer to her daughter by a different name and with male pronouns.
Regino alleges that if she had been involved in the process, she would have not allowed Sierra View Elementary to socially transition her daughter without first seeking guidance from a mental health professional.
Regino met with CUSD Superintendent Kelly Staley in October of 2022, and during that meeting, sought assurances that what happened with her daughter would not happen again with either of her daughters. It was at this time that Regino learned about the policy that Chico Unified School District had adopted
Court documents show that the policy “prohibits acts of verbal, non-verbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility that are based on sex, gender identity, or gender expression, or that have the purpose or effect of producing a negative impact on the student’s academic performance or of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment, regardless of whether the acts are sexual in nature.”
The prohibited conduct included “[r]efusing to address a student by a name or pronouns consistent with the student’s gender identity,” and “[r]evealing a student’s transgender status to individuals who do not have a legitimate need for the information without the student’s consent.”
The third guideline of the policy states “the district shall only disclose” a student’s transgender or gender-nonconforming status to others “with the student’s prior written consent, except when the disclosure is otherwise required by law or when the district has compelling evidence that disclosure is necessary to preserve the student’s physical or mental well-being.”
In January of 2023, Regino filed a complaint in federal court against Superintendent Staley, seeking a declaration that invalidated the CUSD policy as violative of Regino’s constitutional rights and an injunction against enforcement of the policy. In addition, Regino filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, which was denied by the district court.
