WA Dems reject plan to require schools to tell parents right away if student is victim of sexual misconduct by faculty, staff

The House Education Committee voted against the amendment to House Bill 1296, legislation Democrats are using to rewrite the Parental Rights Initiative, which was overwhelmingly supported by Washingtonians last year. Instead, Democrats are attempting to require school districts to adopt policies to address the needs of “gender-expansive” students, including concealing information about students' health and mental health from parents.

Couture said during the committee meeting, “We have seen a stunning amount of sexual misconduct and sexual assaults by educators in our schools just in the last year itself, including two principals in a Vancouver school district that hid from parents a statutory rape of a 16-year-old female student in their school by one of their staff.”

He added, “As a parent myself, I would be disgusted and sickened to know if my kids had some kind of sexual abuse put upon them by staff and I wasn't notified immediately of those things.” Couture continued, “This happened actually in my kids' school district where an eighth-grade school teacher was grooming and having inappropriate sexual relationships with eighth-grade boys.”

“This is all too much commonplace and parents deserve to know right away whenever there is any kind of criminal activity or sexual abuse or sexual allegations of staff that goes along with the safety of their children.”

Despite his impassioned plea, Democrats rejected the amendment.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature has been attempting to dismantle Initiative 2081, known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights since before the legislative session began. The initiative gives parents the right to review educational materials, receive notifications regarding their child’s physical and mental health, and opt out of sexual health education.

Democrats have also been trying to fight the legislation in court, despite passing it last year.

Earlier this week, a King County Superior Court judge granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of Initiative 2081, denying the plaintiff’s requests with prejudice, meaning the case is dismissed permanently and cannot be brought back to court.