California recently passed a law that curtails parental rights in public schools. With the Orwellian name, the SAFETY Act, it is now illegal for teachers to reveal to parents if their children are claiming to be the opposite sex, opting to be called by a different name, or using various pronouns in the classroom.

California has thus effectively claimed custody of public school students over and against parents, overturning the ancient common law principle of “in loco parentis.” Instead of parents delegating authority to public school teachers, now, public school teachers are in a position of superior authority over the parents of the children they are supposed to be teaching.

If one were a groomer (which is a euphemism for child-rapist), one would certainly not want parental notification, but would rather favor giving the teacher as much power as possible, and cutting parents out of the loop. If child molesters had a public lobby, they would surely favor this legislation.

I had an interesting discussion online with a female teacher who favors the measure. When I asked her about in loco parentis, she asked me “What about abusive parents.” While it is true that there are, sadly, abusive parents (and abusive teachers, of course), there are already ways to deal with this. For example, in most states, teachers are “mandatory reporters.” In other words, if a teacher sees evidence of a student being abused, the teacher must report this to the proper authorities. There is a chain of command. It is not the teacher’s job to assume parental control. It is not the teacher’s job to investigate, but to leave investigation to those who have that authority. The teacher’s job is to teach.

My interlocutor’s reply was that in matters of sexuality, parents are “potential abusers.” In other words, parents are to be presumed guilty of abuse and denied their parental rights in matters of their children’s sexuality. Parents may have the right to know if their son fails a Spanish test, but if he is wearing falsies and make-up at school, expecting to be called “Barbara” and addressed as “she/her,” this is to be kept hidden from the parents under penalty of law. The presumption is that parents who don’t go along with this are presumptively guilty of a crime that would curtail their parental rights.

This is also a case where the meanings of words are undergoing a kind of definitional mission creep. For to a radical public school teacher, “abuse” may be defined as raising one’s children in the Christian faith. The word “safety” often has nothing to do with construction sites, hard hats, and making sure the belt on the circular saw in shop class is not frayed. “Safety” has become defined ideologically – hence the euphemistic name of this California law. It would be interesting to see how public school teachers define “abuse.”

I’m a teacher and a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) chaplain. I have taught school – as a public school substitute, parochial middle school teacher, homeschool dad, and private high school teacher (online and in person) – teaching students from pre-K to 12th grade – for 21 years. For the past seven years in CAP, I have taught a character development curriculum to young people aged 12-20. I always tell my students and their parents that parents are always welcome in my classroom. Always. And following the strict CAP protocol, I am never alone, one-on-one, out of sight, with a minor. This is for the students’ safety, my protection, and for parents’ peace of mind. There is no downside to this policy.

As a teacher in a classical Lutheran school, since we do deal with ethics and the Christian life, the topic of sexuality does come up at times. Our students and parents have a right to such topics being handled with propriety and conformity to our Christian faith in an age-appropriate manner – and never a matter of one-on-one discussion in contravention to the parental right to raise their children as they see fit. Parents have custody over their children, and are in charge. Parents delegate their God-given and natural authority to me as the teacher, not the other way around.

I believe public schools should adopt policies (if they don’t have them already) forbidding adults to ever be out of line of sight of others when speaking to minors. It seems like hardly a day goes by without reports of teachers – often women – in sexual relationships with students. There are clearly boundary issues and too much fraternization leading to dark places. Parents need to retake charge.

And, in fact, parents should always be welcome to sit in public school classrooms. I would even go further and argue that, even as many police now have mandatory body cams, so too should classrooms be monitored by audio and video, and parents should be able to log in at any point during the day to observe what is being said and done in class, and to know exactly what is being taught. Social media is laden with radical public school teachers bragging about subverting parents. Such people belong in prison. Cameras would also be an important deterrent to bullying, as well as discouraging school administrators from covering such things up. Nothing should be hidden from parents and from the taxpayers who pay for these schools.

Public school is just that: public. It is public property. Aside from bathrooms and dressing rooms, there is no expectation of privacy – and certainly not among the teachers in their discourse with students.

It’s time for teachers to relearn proper boundaries, and keep in mind that they work for the parents, not the other way around. Their students are their students – not their children. And what about abuse? Child abuse (actual abuse) – whether committed by parents or teachers – should be punished severely.

My parents entrusted me as a high school kid to the Society of Jesus religious order. I attended a Jesuit high school from 9th to 11th grade. I am happy to report that I was never abused, nor did I know of anyone who was. That said, decades later, we all learned that the Jesuit order has, for decades, been crawling with pedophiles, groomers, and predators – almost all homosexual, victimizing boys. When I looked up my school in the vast database of Jesuit offenders, I found names of teachers from just before, and just after, my time at the school. In retrospect, parents were too trusting of these men and of these institutions. And I’m afraid they may still be too trusting of public school teachers and those institutions – especially in California, where withholding critical information from parents is now the law.

Parents, if you are able, pull your children out of these situations, and reclaim your authority. Normal people need to once more control the school boards and restore the doctrine of in loco parentis.

This piece was published at the Substack Most Certainly Beane.

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