Chico parent Aurora Regino makes progress on appeal
by Natalie Hanson | Posted May 12, 2025
photo by Karen Laslo
CUSD offices
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has given new life to a lawsuit against Chico Unified School District that was filed in response to its policy that shaped the handling of a gender identity case.
The higher court in April said that U.S. Eastern District Court Judge John Mendez erred in dismissing a lawsuit filed by Chico parent Aurora Regino. Mendez said Regino didn’t have the legal foundation to pursue a claim opposing the district’s anti-discrimination and student privacy policy.
That policy prohibits the school from notifying parents about a student’s gender identity concerns or decisions without the student’s consent.read more
A Chico mother has appealed her case against Chico Unified School District (CUSD), accusing it of inappropriate conduct and secrecy in a gender identity case.
Aurora Regino has argued that the district must out students who are trans or exploring their gender identity to their parents and that a federal judge denied her right as a parent to control the upbringing of her child. But a panel of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges questioned whether Regino changed her case substantially – enough to send it back to the federal judge for reconsideration.
Center for American Liberty attorney Josh Dixon told the panel in the May 9 hearing that Regino wants parents to have “broad authority,” and claimed that the district’s policy is about “parental secrecy.”
Regino can appeal the previous ruling without revising her case, but at the May 9 hearing, the panel questioned whether she had an argument that would justify reconsideration.
CUSD argued in court May 9 that it follows state law in protecting the confidentiality of students seeking counseling, and that Regino’s argument’s focus seems to have “significantly narrowed.” The district said the oral argument was the first time the appellant narrowed the case to focus on the school’s accommodating of a student by using new pronouns.
Senior U.S. District Judge John Mendez -– who was appointed to the bench by former President George Bush — tossed Regino’s case last July, ruling that Chico Unified successfully identified legitimate government purposes for its nondisclosure policy protecting the rights of LGBTQ students to privacy, freedom from discrimination, and health and safety as guaranteed by federal and state statutes and Constitutional provisions. Students have a legally-protected privacy interest under the California Constitution with respect to information about their gender identity, Mendez said.
Justices Kim McLane Wardlaw, Morgan Christen and Mark Bennett presided this time over the case, which was first filed in January 2023 in federal court in the Eastern District of California. Regino alleges that a school counselor at Sierra View Elementary coaxed a student into adopting a male identity after the fifth-grader confided that they “felt like a boy.” She claims her child was encouraged to “socially transition” by adopting a new name and male pronouns, and that the school did not inform her.
Ahead of the appeal hearing May 9, multiple educators, experts and educational organizations filed to support Chico Unified in the appeal. Attorneys general from different states also filed, saying states have a compelling interest in ensuring a safe and supportive school environment.
California’s Department of Education (CDE) also said in a January filing that state law emphasizes the rights of LGBTQ students and requires the department and the state superintendent of public instruction to take action in supporting them.
Dixon told the panel May 9 that the state does not have the right to change school environments to support a student’s identity.
“Children are immature and make rash decisions and parents are assumed to be fit and act in their children’s best interests,” Dixon said. “The complaint plausibly alleges that social transitioning cuts deep into the fabric of the family driving a wedge between parents and children when children need it most.”
Dixon said his client’s position is not that the parent has to know if a child wants to change the name they are referred to by at school. He said the problem is when the school proactively creates an environment that “affirms” a child’s chosen pronouns.
“It is when the school goes further and creates the affirming environment for the child that the constitution is offended,” he said.
“There is no reasonable expectation of privacy that a child has in things that go on within the school, against their parents,” Dixon said. “The consequences of that would be horrific on the relationship between the parent and the child. Parents need to know what happens at school to direct their child.”
The district said in court filings that there are circumstances where disclosure to parents of what students tell counselors can lead to harm to students -– and the district has a legitimate state interest in protecting student privacy and creating a “zone of protection” from potential domestic violence.
One in 10 transgender individuals experience overt violence from a household member, and 15% are forced to leave their homes because of their identity, note earlier filings in the case.
CUSD attorney Jimmie Johnson told the panel that Regino’s claim that social transitioning is an “external treatment” was proven false in other lawsuits.
“Simply being transgender is not itself an ailment,” Johnson said. “And it’s not something the district is doing to the transgender person. What the district is doing is called accommodation.”
Johnson said a parent doesn’t have a “right to notification” about what a child tells a school counselor beyond what is established in state and federal law.
State officials also testified at the panel that the state does not consider pronoun choice a form of medical treatment.
The panel did not indicate when it may rule. It could affirm the federal judge’s decision, or order that the judge’s ruling was in error and remand the case for further consideration.
The lawsuit was the third in California filed by the right-wing Center for American Liberty which is headed by Harmeet Dhillon, formerly an adviser to President Donald Trump.
Natalie Hanson is a contributing editor to ChicoSol.
Schools can't be forced to out trans children, Mendez says
by Natalie Hanson | Posted July 15, 2023
U.S. Senior Eastern District Judge John Mendez
A federal judge has dismissed a Chico parent’s claim against Chico Unified School District (CUSD) over maintaining confidentiality rights for students.
Chico mother Aurora Regino’s lawsuit, which claims that the district must out students who are trans or exploring their gender identity, has been tossed out of federal court. CUSD had argued that it follows state law in protecting the confidentiality of students seeking counseling.
Filed Jan. 6 in federal court in the Eastern District of California, Regino’s case alleges that a school counselor at Sierra View Elementary coaxed a student into adopting a male identity after the fifth-grader confided that they “felt like a boy.” Regino claims her child was encouraged to “socially transition” by adopting a new name and male pronouns. The school did not inform her, and the child later reverted to identifying as female.
The lawsuit named as defendants the Board of Education and CUSD Superintendent Kelly Staley. It demands removal of the “Parental Secrecy Policy,” which Staley says doesn’t exist.
The lawsuit was the third in California filed by the right-wing Center for American Liberty over gender identity. The Center is headed by Harmeet Dhillon, formerly an adviser to President Donald Trump. It came at a volatile moment nationally as conservatives fire up their base with attacks on transgender rights.
“This court is not the venue for this political debate” — Judge John Mendez
Senior U.S. District Judge John Mendez -– who was appointed to the bench by former President George Bush — said the district policy in question is not proactive, but reactive, that district staff are not directed to force students to adopt transgender identities or keep their identities secret from their parents. Staff must affirm a student’s expressed identity and pronouns and tell only those whom students want to be told, with an exception for the student’s health.
He said that because federal courts possess limited jurisdiction “that have not been vested with open-ended lawmaking powers,” the state Legislature is a better venue for Regino’s complaint.
“This court is not the venue for this political debate,” he said.
(The Trans Legislation Tracker says 561 bills in 49 states have been introduced that would “block trans people from receiving basic healthcare, education, legal recognition, and the right to publicly exist.”)
The case quickly led to debate and turmoil at school board meetings, as some parents insisted the district was maintaining what they called a “parental secrecy policy.” Speakers at meetings debated whether children have a right to privacy that must be honored when gender identity is discussed. Some parents told ChicoSol that many of the public comments made their LGBTQ children uncomfortable.
A group that supports Regino’s suit, Chico Parents -– which has a Facebook group page -– wrote a resolution asking for families to have more control. The CUSD board majority, presented with the resolution, voted no after debate at a spring meeting.
In a 20-page order, Judge Mendez dealt the case a death blow, saying that Regino failed to claim facts that support her substantive due process claim. Substantive due process questions whether the government deprives a person’s rights to life, liberty or property, and if so, if it is justified by a strong purpose.
The district said in court filings that there are circumstances where disclosure to parents of what students tell counselors can lead to harm to students -– and the district has a legitimate state interest in protecting students’ privacy and creating a “zone of protection” from potential domestic violence. Staley’s legal counsel held a presentation at a recent board meeting to go over the policy so that parents would better understand how it is written under the state Department of Education’s anti-discrimination policy.
Regino had claimed that the district’s policy violates her substantive due process rights to make medical decisions for her children that go to the heart of parental decision making, and social transitioning is a significant form of psychological treatment.
But Mendez said Regino was advocating to expand her parental rights.
“None of the cases cited by plaintiff opine on whether the state has an affirmative duty to inform parents of their child’s transgender identity nor whether the state must obtain parental consent before referring to a transgender child by their preferred name and pronouns,” the judge wrote. “Also, while plaintiff alleges that the regulation permits social transitioning at school and this constitutes medical treatment, this allegation is conclusory and, thus, insufficient to raise plaintiff’s right to relief under substantive due process above the speculative level.”
“The issue before this court is not whether it is a good idea for school districts to notify parents of a minor’s gender identity and receive consent before using alternative names and pronouns, but whether the United States Constitution mandates such parental authority. This court holds that it does not.”
Mendez also said that Regino had no proof that a policy forbidding disclosure of a student’s gender identity without their consent “constitutes unwarranted interference in the parent-child relationship.”
“To the contrary, in the context of the instant case, the regulation refrains from
interfering with the established parent-child relationship by allowing students to disclose their gender identity to their parents on their own terms,” Mendez said.
The case has been closed, as the judge said he thinks allowing amendment of Regino’s claims would be “futile” since there are no facts that can be disputed or added to help Regino’s claims advance.
Regino and her lawyers did not respond to requests for comment before this story was posted. The Center for American Liberty’s website hadn’t posted the judge’s order as of July 15.
“We know there are differing viewpoints as it pertains to this case,” CUSD said in a statement to ChicoSol. “Chico Unified appreciates the patience of our community as we worked through the legal process. More importantly, the resolution of this case allows Chico Unified to maintain our focus and financial resources on the education and support of the students in the Chico Unified School District.”
ChicoSol invited CUSD board members to comment.
“The district was not doing anything close to what was being alleged, said Caitlin Dalby, president at large. “I hope this demonstrates to our community that the district maintains its commitment to respect all students, including our transgender students, and (their) right to privacy and that we’ve done the right thing in upholding our anti-discrimination policies.”
Trustee Tom Lando said he wanted to comment as a parent rather than as a member of the board.
“This dismissal protects the rights of vulnerable transgender students, and rebuffs another attack on public education by right wing political organizations,” Lando said. “It amazes me that no one talks about the fact that the suit was led by Harmeet Dhillon, a high-ranking Republican operative who makes a good chunk of money from Fox News by being professionally outraged about these issues. It’s frustrating to see outside interests cause division in Chico for their own gain.”
The American Civil Liberties Union’s Northern California chapter, which joined the lawsuit, said in a statement online that the case is a win for children and their families, including nonbinary and trans children.
“Many California parents support their children for who they are and favor policies that allow students to be themselves on campus and give schools the flexibility to help students work towards family acceptance when needed,” said Jennifer Chou, staff attorney.
Natalie Hanson is a contributing writer to ChicoSol.
ACLU files motion, asking to join with CUSD defendants
by Leslie Layton and Natalie Hanson | Posted March 8, 2023
Aurora Regino, who grew up in Chico, has filed suit against CUSD trustees and the superintendent.
A lawsuit filed against Chico Unified over its response to a student who was questioning their gender identity has opened a new front for Butte County culture wars.
The lawsuit, Regino v. Staley, filed Jan. 6 in federal court in the Eastern District of California, alleges that a school counselor at Sierra View Elementary coaxed a student into adopting a male identity after the fifth-grader confided that they “felt like a boy.” The lawsuit names as defendants the Board of Education and Chico Unified (CUSD) Superintendent Kelly Staley.
The ACLU of Northern California said late today that it has filed a motion to join the lawsuit “on the side of the Chico Unified School District and on behalf of the Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network.” The presiding judge will rule on the motion.
A community that was already deeply polarized is now engaged in debate over the role of public schools — and whether children have a right to privacy that must be honored when gender identity is discussed. Discussions that have become contentious at recent board meetings, meanwhile, have left some members of the LGBTQ community feeling increasingly unsafe. Parents are expected to address the board again at the March 8 meeting.
Eneri Adler, the mother of two trans children who attend Chico schools, said the Board of Education gave “a platform to a whole lot of hatred” by opening discussion in February on district policy. The board voted 4-1 in January -– with Trustee Eileen Robinson opposed — to agendize a discussion.
Adler said the February meeting was attended by “a lot of people who were homophobic” using “hate speak from Fox News.”
A group of about 16 parents appeared at the Feb. 15 meeting, rallying in opposition to what the lawsuit’s complaint calls CUSD’s “Parental Secrecy Policy.” (No policy under that name exists.) Many of the parents carried blue and white signs that pictured two children and stated, “Let them be kids!” Parents who spoke worried that schools were isolating children from their families; their outrage has been encouraged by right-wing leadership in the region and beyond.
The lawsuit, filed by Aurora Regino, a Chico mother, claims her child was encouraged to “socially transition” by adopting a new name and male pronouns. The school did not inform her, and the child later reverted to identifying as female.
What Adler called “hate speak” during the February board meeting looked different to Regino.
“People are seeing what’s going on in our schools,” Regino told ChicoSol in a telephone interview this week. “As long as the debates are respectful, a lot of positive can come out of it. There’s good that can come out of controversy.”
The lawsuit demands removal of the “Parental Secrecy Policy,” which Staley says doesn’t exist.
“… Chico Unified does not have a ‘Parental Secrecy Policy,’ nor do we ever try to change a student’s individual identity,” Staley wrote in a memo to parents and staff soon after news of the lawsuit broke. Later, at the January board meeting, Staley said the district had received “many, many questions and comments” since the lawsuit was filed.
“We’re consulting with state agencies that guide these decisions and we’re going to address these concerns in ways that can strengthen the family and school relationship,” Staley said.
The lawsuit is the third in California filed by the right-wing Center for American Liberty over gender identity. The Center is headed by Harmeet Dhillon, formerly an adviser to President Donald Trump. Dhillon, who appears often on Fox News, was recently defeated in the race for Republican National Committee chair.
Stonewall Executive Director Andrea Mox called the litigation “a litmus test”
The lawsuit also comes at a volatile moment nationally as conservatives fire up their base with attacks on transgender rights. On March 4, podcaster Michael Knowles, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, called for the “eradication of transgenderism,” alarming LGBTQ communities nationwide.
The Trans Legislation Tracker says 449 bills in 41 states have been introduced that would “block trans people from receiving basic healthcare, education, legal recognition, and the right to publicly exist.”
Stonewall Alliance Chico, which works closely with schools and families to offer resources for youth, says lawsuits like Regino’s are part of a nationwide assault on transgender rights. Executive Director Andrea Mox called the litigation “a litmus test” to see how California judges respond.
States that lack California’s protective policies often have environments that are hostile to LGBTQ students, she said. Those environments force children to be “super-closeted, and so they have to maintain this identity to satisfy their parents and their family – and if they step outside of that they risk becoming homeless.”
How Chico became a battleground
Chico Unified has no Parental Secrecy Policy, but what it does have is policy 5145.3 that reflects privacy and non-discrimination laws.
State law requires that school districts allow students to participate in activities based on their gender identity -– even if that identity doesn’t match their assigned sex on school records. The state’s Department of Education (CDE) has provided guidance on confidentiality and other issues based on its interpretation of state law and Constitutional provisions, said Paul Gant, the district’s attorney, in a presentation to the board last month.
CUSD’s 5145.3 policy is based on that guidance and recommended by the California School Boards Association. It closely reflects what CDE says: “Revealing a student’s gender identity or expression to others may compromise the student’s safety.”
As a result, in most cases parents would not be contacted without a child’s permission. In many cases students have a legal right to share information with a counselor confidentially.
Regino said she was “dumbfounded” when she discovered that her child was using a new name and different pronouns at school without her knowledge. She says her child was encouraged to talk to another family member first. Regino’s initial reaction, after the discovery, was to “make sure [her child] knew she would be loved and supported with whatever she wanted.”
Regino then set about to ensure that what had happened to her wouldn’t happen to another family. She met with district officials, asking that the privacy policy be removed. “I pled with them all the way up to the superintendent and had the door slammed in my face over and over,” she said. “They were very much not wanting to hear anything I had to say.”
After a meeting with Staley, who she described as “hard-nosed,” Regino said she began thinking about a lawsuit and researching on the Internet until she was referred to the Center for American Liberty.
Liberty Center attorney Eric Sell said the Center was interested in Regino’s case because policies like CUSD’s are “seen across the State of California.” The lawsuit was filed, and Regino decided to go public, appearing on national television in a Fox News interview.
Their goal in filing the lawsuit, Sell said, is to “stop the district from socially transitioning children” without parental consent.
“The notion that kids have a privacy right against their parents — that’s absurd and that’s not rooted in Constitutional law,” Sell said. “We certainly recognize that maybe a child is in an abusive household. But simply not supporting a new gender identity is not abuse.”
Sell said he’s concerned with the district’s adoption of a “blanket policy” that prevents it from automatically contacting parents — especially in the case of a transition that could “re-wire their psyche to identify as a new person, a new gender.”
Parents opposed to CUSD’s privacy policy have voiced similar concerns, with a few using the catch-all “gender ideology” phrase to confront the problem at hand.
But Dr. Christine Leistner, a Chico State human sexuality researcher who has been speaking at board meetings, took issue with the concept of a “rewire.” Leistner says research shows transgender identity becomes clear in incremental development that usually takes place over a period of years.
“That tells me the student had been thinking about it for quite a period of time before they got up the gumption to tell somebody,” Leistner said.
Research also shows that the majority of trans and non-binary children –- perhaps two-thirds -– don’t have supportive families, she added. Requiring parental consent could put many children at risk of rejection and homelessness.
That makes it difficult to hear parents protesting privacy rights, she added. “I honestly think this is hate disguised as being caring,” she added.
The February meeting became so contentious that at one point Board President Caitlin Dalby asked a man to move down the row, which he did, defusing a confrontation. Adler said a group of LGBTQ families left together at the meeting’s close after one parent expressed worry that the discussion might inspire a hate crime.
Link to violence
LGBTQ advocates say those parents had reason to worry -– that there is a link between misperceptions that can be promulgated by lawsuits like Regino’s and violence against their communities.
“There is just a non-debatable correlation between lawsuits like this, legislation, and the violence our communities face,” said Denise Spivak, CEO of CenterLink:The Community of LGBTQ Centers from her base in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“While all these adults are battling it out, they’re putting the fate of our youth in peril and it’s hard to watch.”
Stonewall’s Mox said local news stories repeated statements in the lawsuit’s complaint, without getting other perspectives, which could lead to transphobia and hate.
Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) also cited the lawsuit’s claims on Twitter, and his Butte County district representative, Teri DuBose, spoke at the Feb. 15 meeting. “Know that the Congressman shares your outrage,” she said, adding that he’s working on a federal bill to “stop this malpractice.”
Yet many people interviewed for this story said they find it hard to believe that school staff would proactively encourage LGBTQ identification.
“Even if someone goes to a counselor and says, ‘I don’t feel right in my body. I don’t feel [like my assigned sex]’, that counselor is probably going to be asking some more questions,” Adler said. “No one wakes up wanting to be gay or trans; it puts a target on your back.”
For some children, she said, it could be a phase.
“But if you make the child feel like scum for wanting to explore that phase, it’s just more trauma. It’s not like the schools are handing out puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy.”
Board Vice President Eileen Robinson said her views have been shaped by the experience of having two trans children in her extended family and receiving support from CUSD staff. A parent, Julie Nilsson, also said she worked in partnership with the district to ease the challenges of a transitioning child.
Attorney Gant told the board last month that the CDE’s guidance on privacy is untested in the courts. But several cases are pending that could have an impact.
“This is an area where great caution is required,” Gant said. “There’s a relatively narrow path, there are so many laws and Constitutional provisions that impact on this, that potential legal pitfalls exist.”
The Feb. 15 meeting closed with a narrow vote in favor of tabling the matter after Trustee Matt Tennis unsuccessfully moved to revise district policy in an out-of-order motion that Trustee Tom Lando called “grandstanding.”
Leslie Layton is editor of ChicoSol. Natalie Hanson is a contributing writer/reporter.
