Emily Rae
Emily Rae is a Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, where she litigates cases to protect individual liberties, prevent government overreach, and preserve other constitutional rights.
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On August 28, 2023, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a temporary restraining order to prevent the Chino Valley Unified School District from enforcing their parental notification policy. This policy ensures parents receive critical information related to their children’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being by requiring school administrators to notify parents within three days if their child requests changes to their official or unofficial records. In a hearing on September 6th, Judge Thomas Garza of San Bernardino County granted the Attorney General’s motion for a temporary restraining order until the matter could be considered in full.
On September 11th, the Liberty Justice Center stepped in to represent Chino Valley Unified School District and defend it against the Attorney General’s lawsuit.
“The Chino Valley Unified School District was right to implement a policy ensuring parents have access to information that impacts their children’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being,” said LJC Senior Counsel Emily Rae. “We look forward to defending the propriety of this policy in court.”
On March 7, 2024, the District voted to update its parental notification policy in response to a judge’s recent rulings in the case. The updated policy maintains the District’s original requirement that school administrators notify parents within three days if their child requests changes to their official or unofficial records, but removed language from the policy requiring staff to notify parents when a student requests to use facilities or pronouns that differ from their sex at birth.
Despite the Attorney General’s lawsuit against Chino Valley, multiple other districts are considering or have implemented similar parental notification policies.
“I can’t believe we’re at a point in America where authoritarians in power are fighting this hard to keep sexual secrets about children from their own parents,” said LJC Board Member Corey DeAngelis. “They are now using the heavy hand of the state to subvert local control and try to strip away the most fundamental parental rights. I’m proud of the parents in Chino Valley Unified who are fighting back for their constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children. I’m proud to be a board member at Liberty Justice Center, fighting alongside them. We will win this war the authoritarians are waging on parents.”
Emily Rae is a Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, where she litigates cases to protect individual liberties, prevent government overreach, and preserve other constitutional rights.
Dean McGee is Liberty Justice Center’s Educational Freedom Attorney, where he focuses on empowering parents and students to choose the educational path that best meets their needs.
Noelle Daniel is a staff attorney at Liberty Justice Center where she assists in cases to protect the rights to free speech, economic liberty, private property, and other Constitutional rights in courts across the country.
(The Federalist)—The Californians at the center of one of the biggest parents’ rights fights in the nation right now were targeted last month when Meta falsely associated searches of their names with a warning about “child sexual abuse.” President of Chino Valley Unified School District Sonja Shaw was one of...
(RedState)—Sonja Shaw, President of the Chino Valley Unified School District School Board, is used to political opponents spinning false tales about her, and seeing those tales end up in disingenuous news stories. After all, she’s not beholden to the teacher’s unions, and she ran as a newcomer in 2022 on...
(The Washington Stand)—The Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday in a challenge to the Biden administration’s “censorship-industrial complex,” as Family Research Council President Tony Perkins described its methods of coercing or pressuring social media platforms to “stifle constitutionally protected speech that it viewed as misinformation or disinformation.” Whatever the court...
(Chino Valley Champion)—The Chino Valley School Board voted 4-1 to change its parental notification policy by removing any mention of gender in response to a judge’s recent rulings in California vs. the Chino Valley Unified School District. Board member Don Bridge voted against the new policy, stating that he didn’t...
(The Federalist)—In an attempt to shift public opinion against the Chino Valley Unified School District, which is currently embroiled in a fight with California Attorney General Rob Bonta over its new parental notification policy, The New York Times published an article smearing the fight to protect parents’ rights. The CVUSD...
(Fox News)—Portions of a Southern California school district’s parental notification policy will remain blocked, after a judge granted a preliminary injunction to the state of California to stop the measure the state says discriminates against LGBTQ students. Chino Valley Unified School District passed the policy in July. Part of the...
In Maryland, a group seeks to have sexually explicit books removed from school libraries and is being portrayed as enemies of speech and enlightenment. Meanwhile, in California, parents believe they should be informed if their child shows signs of gender confusion while at school—an argument with which the state disagrees....
(The Center Square) – Judge Michael Sachs of the Superior Court of California partially upheld and partially blocked parts of Chino Valley Unified School District’s controversial gender change notification policy that has drawn attention from state leaders as the latest battleground in the culture war. Sachs issued an injunction against...
(California Family Council)—In a case that has sparked intense debate surrounding parental rights, student privacy, and whether public schools can keep secrets from parents, the Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, is set to become the stage for a legal showdown this Thursday, October 19. Judge Michael Sachs...
(Daily Signal)—A Southern California school district requires teachers and staff to notify parents when their children say they have been bullied, are considering self-harm, or decide to publicly identify as a gender opposite their biological sex at school. But California’s Democratic attorney general, Rob Bonta, sued the district to block...