Last Thursday, Chino Valley Unified School District passed a parental notification policy that would require schools to report to parents about their child's gender identity.

It was introduced last month as a protocol that would follow a three-day notice if a child that is enrolled as a student in the district, has identified as a different gender than one they were assigned to, different pronouns to go by, requests to access in sports, bathrooms, or lockers that are given to a group of a different gender, or needing accommodations regarding their identity including being involved in any violence or talking about suicide.

The policy was first discussed and politicized as Assembly Bill 1314, sponsored by Republican Assemblymember Bill Essayli, with also a previous 4-1 vote from the CVUSD school board that would adopt a resolution supporting the legislation.

However, the bill did not get a hearing in the Assembly Appropriations and afterwards was left shortly. “That's why we need those flags to tell students that they're safe in that space and it's for everybody,” Kristi Hirst, founder of Our Schools USA and a CVUSD parent, said in an interview Friday. “It's not a religious flag. It's not a sexuality flag as she (Shaw) was trying to say. It's not a political flag. It really just symbolizes that you're going to be accepted for whoever you are in this room.”

According to East Bay Times, Brenda Walker, president of Associated Chino Teachers, said the board still has not approached the union with details about how the policy will be enacted or the consequences for teachers who choose to disregard it.

It has become less of a conversation about the safety for children and more of an outcry of parents who would rather have the legal permission to not be accepting of their kids' true selves.

The controlling of a person's autonomy and freedom is a threat to those that feel like their spotlight in society is no longer taken seriously when it's actually just time for others to have their rights and agency respected.

With many students who are proud for who they are which is incredible and courageous during these uncertain times, knowing that there will definitely be legal challenges including towards the banning of the pride flag enforced all throughout Orange County shows that the LGBTQ+ community is here to stay and to be shining no matter what.