Republican attorney general is telling schools to out trans kids

Kansas’s Republican attorney general Kris Kobach is accusing several school districts in the state of “socially transitioning” students without their parents’ knowledge, another way of saying that schools are respecting trans students’ identities without outing them to their parents.

In a press release Thursday, Kobach’s office said that early last year, the AG sent letters to six Kansas school districts challenging their policies that “require or allow school district staff to conceal from parents a student’s ‘transgender’ or ‘gender non-conforming’ status.”

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Kobach’s office claimed that the policies “allow schools to ‘socially transition’ students without the parent’s knowledge or consent,” and that they “violate parental rights.”

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As the Associated Press notes, Kansas law does not require schools to inform parents if their children request to use different names or pronouns or if they identify as trans or gender-nonconforming. In his letters, Kobach cited no actual laws that the school policies violated.  

However, according to Kobach’s release, two of the six districts that received his letters quickly changed their policies. In December, Kobach sent follow-up letters to the superintendents of the remaining four districts, as well as to Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) executive director Brian Jordan, again questioning their policies of not outing trans and gender non-conforming students to their parents and accusing them of surrendering to “woke gender ideology.”

“It would be arrogant beyond belief to hide something with such weighty consequences from the very people (parents) that both law and nature vest with providing for a child’s long-term well-being,” Kobach wrote.

As in his previous letters, Kobach cited no laws and did not specify what action his office would pursue if the school districts did not change their policies.

According to the AP, three of the districts—Topeka Public Schools (USD 501), Shawnee Mission School District (USD 512), and Olathe Public Schools (USD 233)—said that they work with parents on a case-by-case basis when it comes to trans and non-binary students. Kansas City Kansas Public Schools (USD 500) declined to comment.

In December, Shawnee Mission superintendent Michelle Hubbard sent a blistering response to Kobach’s letter blasting the AG for relying on “misinformation” from “partisan sources” like the right-leaning organization Parents Defending Education.

“We are not caricatures from the polarized media,” Hubbard wrote in response to Kobach’s use of the term woke as an insult, “but rather real people who work very hard in the face of intense pressure on public schools.”

Topeka Public Schools General Director of Instructional Services Dr. Aarion L. Gray told local news station WIBW that the district is confident its policies “comply with current laws as written and interpreted by the courts while protecting the legal rights of both the parents and their student(s).”

“Topeka Public Schools believes education is a cooperative effort between the parent, their student and USD 501′s quality educators,” Gray said. The district, he added, “works collaboratively with parents and their student(s) to protect their legal rights while maintaining a positive learning environment for all.”

In a statement, Olathe Public Schools said it has never had a formal policy regarding informing parents about their child’s gender identity. Rather, it said, the district has “internal administrative guidelines” that staff use on a case-by-case basis.

“As a district, it is always our intent and practice to work directly and partner with individual families and students as situations arise to ensure we are providing the appropriate and necessary support,” the statement reads, according to local NBC affiliate KSHB. “We trust our staff to put the best interests of families and students at the heart of every decision.”