OPINION:
The hyper-progressive obsession with evading parental rights and force-feeding strange ideologies into children’s hearts and minds has, fortunately, become a house of cards, with courts increasingly aiming against what can only be described as absolute, demonic insanity.
For years now, bold California teachers have sounded the alarm over school districts essentially participating in kids’ secretive gender transitions. These educators, who are uncomfortable and opposed to helping children socially transition without notifying their parents, have long faced threats or even punishment for speaking out on the matter.
The issue came to a head when California essentially banned schools from enacting policies requiring parents be informed if their children attempt to identify as the opposite gender. And while many of these educational heroes were ignored or thwarted, those who valiantly fought back in favor of children’s health and parental rights have finally won.
Judge Roger Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California ordered California to pay $4.5 million in attorneys’ fees in the Mirabelli v. Bonta case. The battle has been a bit of a legal back-and-forth. Judge Benitez’s ruling was initially reversed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the U.S. Supreme Court last month allowed it to stand.
The conclusion of the legal battle over California’s anti-parent policy means the regulation, enacted in 2024, will no longer be enforced. That policy stated that school employees and other educational officials “shall not be required to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by state or federal law.”
The obvious problem here is that the children’s parents — the people responsible for kids’ well-being — were being precluded from having this information. And any attempt by districts to mandate that guardians be alerted was essentially invalidated by the initial law.
The Thomas More Society, the conservative legal firm at the center of the case, released a statement reacting to the payout and victory.
“A $4.5 million fee award sends an unmistakable message to state governments and school districts across the country: If you trample the constitutional rights of parents, you will pay for it — literally,” Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at Thomas More Society, said in a statement.
Mr. Breen is correct on every level, yet the size and scope of California’s efforts to evade parental rights — and the hundreds of school districts across the nation that have and continue to hold similar policies — should be alarming.
The thirst for power and control over children, the eclipsing of parental rights, and the sadistic obsession with social engineering and steering children toward dangerous ideologies is so blatant, so insatiable to some of these hyper-progressive folks that they’ll defy all logic in a quest to see it through.
This is something Paul M. Jonna, special counsel at the Thomas More Society, also drove home in his response to the ruling. He said most “rational government actors” would have abandoned the battle in 2023 when a preliminary injunction was put into place.
“Instead, California officials doubled down, wasted taxpayer resources and left them holding the bag for this $4.5 million fee award,” Mr. Jonna said. “The state defendants should be held fully accountable both for their reprehensible and dangerous policies, and also for their decision to fight this losing battle in the first place.”
Again, he’s correct. These continued battles, which fly in the face of common sense, should leave us alarmed. But beyond anything else, they should spark gratitude for the teachers and educators who have been willing to risk their reputations and even their careers to stand up and say: “No more.”
Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, two California teachers at the center of this battle, filed their case in April 2023 after the Escondido Union School District declined to grant religious accommodations that would have allowed them to conceal students’ gender transitions.
In a 2023 interview, Ms. Mirabelli told me she believes parents and teachers should partner together and that she knew she needed to take a stand on the matter.
“We don’t wanna drive a wedge, teach the child to hide and manipulate others,” she said, highlighting the dangers of teaching kids to lie to their parents. That’s not healthy.”
Ms. West, for her part, has long encouraged Americans to speak out, noting that her battle has come at great cost to her.
“Use your voice, parents,” Ms. West told me in 2023. “Please use your voice, step up, go to school board meetings. We need to replace school board members. We need to change the whole culture of public schools.”
Thankfully, Ms. Mirabelli and Ms. West had the fortitude and sense to take a stand. May we all be as bold in confronting evil when we see it.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Mr. Hallowell also is the author of four books.
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