by Brendan Clarey
An overwhelming majority of Americans do not think schools should hide a student’s gender transition from parents, according to a recent poll of more than 2,200 likely voters.
The issue of notifying parents of a student’s gender change has been hotly debated in recent years, especially in California, where the state has sided with school districts that have adopted policies informing parents that students are using different names and pronouns.
Voters’ voice survey in Central Squareconducted by Noble Predictive Insights, surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 1,000 Democrats, 1,000 Republicans and nearly 200 true independents.
The poll shows that nearly three-quarters, 71% of likely voters, said teachers should notify parents if their students say they want to be taught by a different gender.
David Byler, head of research at Noble Predictive Insights, told The Center Square that the survey results were “robust.”
“Pollsters have asked this question in many different ways in many different states, with many different response options, and that is a lasting conclusion,” Byler said. “If a student changes gender identification at school, parents should know about it. This is what the electorate thinks.”
“The electorate believes that parents have a right to know whether something as serious as a change in gender identity is happening at school,” Byler said. “They want to be involved in their children’s lives, and the rest of society thinks they should be involved in their children’s lives.”
“When it comes to demographics, you’ll notice that when the numbers are skewed, there aren’t many individual demographics that really disagree with each other. Basically everyone agrees to one degree or another.”
