CVUSD’s action infuriated California Attorney General Rob Bonta. He has launched a civil rights investigation into potential legal violations by the school district. Bonta claims that the policy of informing parents if their children want different pronouns, use the opposite-sex bathroom, or have considered self-harm or suicide is “outing” the child, and that student confidentiality on these matters should be protected by state law.

In a letter to Bonta, California lawyer and assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Woodcrest) demanded that the attorney general provide a legal basis for his civil rights investigation, claiming that the action is designed to “chill the political activities of local school boards who disagree with the narrative of the ruling political party in Sacramento.” Essayli also asserted that the California DOE’s suggestion that students possess a “legally cognizable privacy interest from their parents” is not backed by “any statutory or court authority supporting its position.”