Washington State Legislature Destroying Parental Rights

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Washington State voters overwhelmingly approved an Initiative colloquially known as the Parents Bill of Rights in 2024. Hundreds of thousands of signatures were collected, and the legislature passed a statute giving parents rights to review school curricula and the records of their children held by the school. 

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Unsurprisingly, the legislature rubber-stamped the popular measure during an election year. And, unsurprisingly, the Democrats and the Democratic governor gutted much of the statute this year, more than a year out from the next general election. 

This is the new normal in "democracies," it seems. When voters get it "wrong" in the eyes of the Establishment, their votes and/or preferences are nullified. 

At issue, of course, is alphabet ideology, which has become a matter of religious conviction on the left. The Democrats want to make certain that the school system can promote alphabet ideology, provide medical treatment to students without parental knowledge or consent. The law also, shockingly, allows the schools to hide that children have been victims of sexual predation by school officials for days. 

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Critics say the new legislation guts the core of Initiative 2081. Among the most controversial changes:
 
  • Schools can delay parents from receiving information about their students and entirely removes access for parents receiving medical and mental health records. 
  • The bill removes the requirement to notify parents when their child receives medical services from government employees in schools. 
  • It allows government employees up to two days to notify parents that their child was the victim of a crime or sexual assault in school. 
  • The bill creates significant legal and bureaucratic hurdles for parents seeking to hold schools accountable when rights under I-2081 are violated.
  • The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is granted expanded authority to penalize school districts that fail to comply with its directives.
The bill passed along party lines, with every Republican legislator voting against it. Rep. Travis Couture (R-Allyn), a vocal opponent of HB 1296, denounced the measure as a "slap in the face to democracy" and criticized Democrats for overturning a measure they had previously supported. "We have seen a stunning amount of sexual misconduct and sexual assaults by educators in our schools just in the last year," Couture said. He proposed an amendment that would have required immediate parental notification if a student was sexually abused by a school employee—an amendment Democrats voted down.
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This legislation has "all the hallmarks" of a Democratic Party bill. It undermines parental rights and nullifies the will of the people

The law contains an emergency clause. This will allow it to take effect immediately, and it eliminates the possibility of a referendum that would give voters a chance to weigh in on the law. Democratic lawmakers have said the emergency clause would help provide schools more clarity right away. Republicans criticize it as a ploy to block any referendum effort.

It goes so far as to prevent voters from weighing in through a referendum, the next step up the ladder of voters imposing their will on the government through a constitutional amendment. 

In a very real sense, what the legislature is doing is imposing a state religion. It presumes that any parent who disagrees with the state on the morality or wisdom of a curriculum or medical decision facilitated by the state is a child abuser, and they are stripped of their parental rights. More than that, it strips parents of their basic right to protect their children--allowing agents of the state to abuse children and hide that fact from the parents while they try to clean up the record. 

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Justify that if you can. 

It's child sacrifice to the alphabet gods. 

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