Dupage Policy Journal

A parent of a student at Chico Unified School District recently met with the Chico Unified School Board saying that the district transitioned her daughter without permission and also without telling her, and now she is suing the board and the district’s superintendent, according to a report by the Daily Signal.

Political activist Jeanne Ives is a former Republican representative who ran for Illinois governor in 2018 where she narrowly lost in the Republican primary to former Gov. Bruce Rauner with 48.5% of votes. She recently took to Facebook to voice her displeasure about situations like those that occurred in Chico, relating it to Wheaton D200.

“March investigation from Parents Defending Education reported that almost 9,000 schools across all 50 states have policies in which parents are kept in the dark if their child is struggling with transgender-related mental health issues," Political activist Jeanne Ives posted on Facebook. "Wheaton D200 is one of the 9,000 schools with a policy that hides transitioning from parents.”

According to the Daily Signal, Aurora Regino told the Chico Unified School Board on April 5 during their meeting that her child in elementary school was getting help from a school mental wellness counselor as her mother was battling breast cancer and Regino’s father had recently passed away. She said her daughter told the counselor that she wished to tell her mother about the counseling and that she struggled with her sexual identity, but this was ignored by the counselor. The daughter was bullied, in turn, and in response, the Center for American Liberty filed a lawsuit against the school superintendent and the school board on behalf of Regino. 

Many schools across the nation have transgender policies that go against the rights of parents and are also “secretive” according to the Daily Signal.

“I’m still in awe about what I saw last night and how the Board allowed people to heckle and bully parents who were speaking about the right to be involved in their own children’s lives,” Regino told the Center for American Liberty, according to the report by the Daily Signal. “This decision is devastating for parents not only here in our community but also across the country. The next step to fight back is legal action and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

There were pro-LGBTQ+ protesters at the meeting in support of the policy, and a professor of public health at California State University-Chico, Lindsay Brigg, took to Twitter to speak in their favor.

“Chico queers SHOWED UP tonight!” Briggs wrote on Twitter. “So many beautiful, radical, queer babes came out to support trans & queer youth tonight at the Chico Unified School District meeting. It took 7 HOURS but we emerged victorious at 12:16 a.m. and trans kids are safe tonight in Chico.”