The Political Hat

     Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.

     The focus this time: Schools love parents just as long as you’re the type of parent they love.

     First, a little mood music:

     Carrying on…

     Sometimes, state supreme courts rule against parents and for the government.

“A policy that allows school staff to keep a child’s transgender status a secret does not violate a parent’s fundamental rights under the New Hampshire constitution, the state’s Supreme Court has held.

“The policy was challenged by a New Hampshire mother who sued the Manchester school district after finding out from a teacher that her minor child (identified as M.C.) had asked school staff and students to be called by a name typically associated with the opposite sex.”

“…

“And while the school justifies its policy based on principles of ‘safety’ and ‘inclusion,’ such secret social transitioning—starting with using their preferred names and pronouns—puts the child on the path to permanent, life-altering medical transitioning. All without the parents’ knowledge, much less consent.

“The court zoomed past these thorny issues to conclude there’s no ‘constitutional dimension’ to any interference with parental rights resulting from the school’s non-disclosure policy, compared to those implicated by parental custody and termination cases. And it read the lower court’s order to find—without any explanation as to how—that the policy survives both the facial and ‘as applied’ constitutional challenges under the more lenient rational basis review.”

Continue reading →