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Standing outside the Manchester School District office, GOP congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt called out the city’s schools and her Democratic opponent over the issue of parental rights.

“Far left Democrats, including my opponent (U.S. Rep.) Chris Pappas, do not believe that parents have a fundamental right to know when their child is expressing concerns over their gender status at school,” Leavitt said. She was surrounded by supporters waving “Moms for Karoline” signs.

Leavitt was responding to a recent ruling by Hillsborough Superior Court Judge Amy Messer rejecting a Manchester mother’s demand she be told about her child’s behavior at school regarding gender identity. District policy forbids teachers and employees from informing parents if children adopt a different gender or engage in related behavior while at school.

Messer ruled that parents ultimately do not have the right to direct how their children are educated in public schools.

Leavitt said if elected she would push for a federal parents’ bill of rights.

“Parents have an inalienable right to know what’s going on in their child’s classroom, and in Congress, I will proudly support legislation to enact a federal parental bill of rights,” Leavitt said. “I will always ensure that Granite State moms and dads feel heard at the highest level of our government. That is why I am here today, and I will always put parents over politicians.”

Manchester School District spokesman Andrew Toland declined to comment on Leavitt’s remarks, saying the lawsuit is still potentially pending. After Messer dismissed the lawsuit, the mother’s attorney Richard Lehmann told NHJournal he plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Leavitt said the district’s policy is based on the false assumption that parents will automatically harm their LGBTQ+ identifying children and will not seek to do what is in the true best interest of their child.

“I spoke directly and personally with the mother who filed this lawsuit,” Leavitt said. “You know what she told me? She told me, ‘I may have lost my daughter. My daughter may have taken her own life if I was not accidentally informed that she was expressing concerns over her gender at school.’ She said, ‘Who would’ve been responsible then if my sweet innocent child lost and took her own life? She was expressing concerns over her emotional and mental health crying out for help to these teachers,’” Leavitt said.

Activists with the liberal organization Granite State Progress told NH Journal Leavitt is wrong to champion parents’ rights over the school’s policy to keep gender identity secrets. Children who identify as transgender or some other variation of LGBTQ+ run the risk of parental violence when they come out, said Sarah Robinson with the organization.

“We believe that students deserve to go to school to learn in a place of belonging. And as a mom myself, I believe that my children deserve to be valued in whatever space they step into. And we know that coming out to parents is a big decision for students and teachers and educators and staff of schools. Interrupting the parent-child relationship is not the way this conversation needs to go,” Robinson said.

Asked what other information teachers should keep secret from parents about their children’s behavior, Zandra Rice Hawkins, executive director of Granite State Progress, deflected the question. Instead, she claimed most parents in New Hampshire support Manchester’s policy of secrecy, based on the most recent school board election results.

“Here’s the deal: We had school board races up and down New Hampshire in the spring, and the candidates who came out on top were those who supported all kids in the classroom. And parents who are involved in their children’s lives and create supportive, loving environments at home. Their kids come to them and talk to them. And kids who do not have that at home need to be safe and supported and firmed in the other spaces they are in,” Rice Hawkins said.

Pappas declined to respond to requests for comment. However, just hours after Leavitt’s press conference he joined his fellow House Democrats in a vote to kill an amendment to protect parents’ right to know.

“Every House Democrat just voted against requiring parental notice and consent before a school provides services related to sexual orientation or gender identity,” tweeted House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) “Outrageous. Parents have a right to know what schools are doing with their kids.”

State House Republicans are gearing up for another showdown with Gov. Chris Sununu, this time over HB 1431 the parental rights bill critics say would force teachers to out LGBTQ+ children and teens.

Sununu, backed by Attorney General John Formella’s office, has said he will veto the bill because of the potential harm it could do to children, and the potential liability it could create for schools. 

The bill has become a lightning rod, with Republican backers calling it an “anti-grooming” bill and Democrats saying it will put the lives of children in danger. The language in the law does appear to require schools to inform parents about their child’s sexual identity. Supporters say if a male student is using the female locker rooms or taking similar overt actions while at school, parents have a right to know.

The law was meant to solidify the legal right parents have in directing their children’s education. The rights enumerated in the bill include the right to see their child’s school records, obtain information about courses and after-school clubs, and the right to review tests and classroom materials, among other items. It’s one section deep down in the law’s text that is drawing concern. It reads that parents have:

“The right to be notified promptly when any school board, school district, school administrative unit, school administrator, or other school employee initiates, investigates, or finds the need for any action by school authorities relating to the student pursuant to school policies governing student conduct, truancy, dress code violations, sexual harassment, bullying, hazing, behavior management and intervention, substance use, suicide prevention, gender expression or identity, disability accommodation, and special meal prescription.”

Assistant Attorney General Sean Locke, with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Unit, told lawmakers last week this section of the law is problematic.

“This language could be construed to require school staff to effectively ‘out’ students–against the student’s wishes–to their parents if and when those students seek to avail themselves of protections pursuant to the school’s gender expression or identity policies,” Locke said in a statement. “This language targets students based upon their gender identity or expression for different treatment from other students, which denies those students the benefits of the particular policies designed to protect them from discrimination in schools.”

State Rep. Kimberly Rice, R-Hudson, who is also the speaker pro tempore of the House, said this section of the law would clearly result in school districts outing students to their families. She has called it a bad bill.

“I do believe it will force schools to out kids,” Rice said.

New Hampshire Democrats have tried to label the proposal a “Don’t Say Gay” bill, a reference to an unrelated law passed in Florida. That law simply restricts sexual content from the K-3rd grade curriculum. The “Don’t Say Gay” claim has been repeatedly debunked and the proposal had the support of a majority of Florida voters, including 55 percent of Democrats.

This factually-questionable criticism from Granite State Democrats is making it difficult for some New Hampshire parents to decide if the parental rights bill is really a problem.

New Hampshire’s bill does not ban teaching sexuality, but even some of its backers concede it could be problematic. State Rep. Aidan Ankarberg (R-Rochester), one of the co-sponsors, was surprised by the opposition to the bill. He said the proposal ought to pass and then lawmakers can fix the outing concerns after the fact.

“I will also tell you that in regards to HB1431 it was never intended to discriminate against the LGBTQ community in any way. I personally never heard of any such opposition to the bill as it traveled through the legislative process and to take it a step further, next year I will be happy to sponsor an amendment to ensure that under the provisions of the parents bill of rights that no discrimination can be justified along the lines of sexual/ethnic orientation, etc.,” Ankerberg said. “We can find solutions to these issues in the next legislative term but the governor first should sign the bill into law and we can amend it from there.”

According to Ankarberg, the law is meant to give parents solid legal footing when dealing with the state, and with schools.

“Since its conception, HB1431 has been about codifying the relationship between the state and parents, while outlining the responsibilities of that relationship therein,” he said.

The controversial section of the bill — section (g) — does not automatically out LGBTQ+ students when they disclose their identities to teachers, he said. Any disclosure to parents happens if and when the school initiates an action involving the student, he said.

“Section (g) states that parental notification will only occur once action or investigation in violation of a policy is initiated. If a child is bullied, assaulted or discriminated etc. against by staff, other students, or members of the public on school grounds or other non- private property or spheres of influence and an incident is reported and investigated, parents should have a right to know what led to the violation and the details of the investigation as relates to their child. This reasonable bill is a huge step forward for parental rights and transparency and I look forward to its passage into law,” he said.

Another backer of the bill, Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry, said the law keeps teachers from engaging in possible inappropriate behavior with students, and it puts the right of the parents first.

“​When I was a kid, we learned in school that if any grownup asks you to keep a secret from your parents you need to tell your parents right away,” Layon said. “Just as our teachers should be treated as innocent until proven guilty, our parents deserve the same respect. Unless there is abuse, the parent-child relationship must come before the teacher-student relationship.”

A conservative lawyer who spoke to NH Journal said there is no problem with the bill as-is since schools can still use a certain amount of discretion. This source said criticism of the bill boils down to assuming parents will be abusive if they found out about their child’s orientation. 

“Do we deem all parents abusers until proven innocent and withhold this kind of information on the off chance a parent might be abusive? Of course not: schools only have in loco parentis authority in the first place because it has been delegated to the school by the parents,” this source said. “(S)chools default to disclosing this information to parents, and withhold it only if we have some specific reason to suspect parents are abusive. The schools can do the same thing here. Nothing in the policy prevents them from adopting policies that withhold information from suspected abusers.”

Opponents of the bill, like Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, suggested that children should be able to explore their sexuality with a trusted teacher, without telling their parents.

“What I think we end up doing is we end up policing curiosity,” he said according to NH Bulletin. “The child who wants to explore things, think about things, maybe get together with other groups of children and talk and learn about how they are.”

Meg Tuttle, president of the NEA-NH, the state’s largest teacher’s union, said it is dangerous to let parents get between teachers and students when it comes to talking about sex.

 “HB 1431 disregards these well-tended relationships, substituting them with rules that make our schools and classrooms less safe for every student, risk their mental and physical health and well-being, and undermine the state’s obligation to provide an adequate and inclusive education for all students. Today, for the sake of a radical political agenda, the committee put the lives of children at risk,” Tuttle said.

Tuttle has previously said teachers in the classroom should be activists, especially when it comes to teaching subjects like sexual identity.