Parent Alert: Big Win for Parental Rights!

Today is Wednesday, June 24th, 2026. School's out, but hello, parents win a court victory that blocks gender secrecy at schools. We're talking about it. Meanwhile, though, a Massachusetts middle school principal apologizes for teaching a lesson about the Holocaust. We're talking about it. I'm filling you in what happened this week right now on Parent Alert. Here we go. I'm in America for the World Cup and trying Chick-fil-A for the first time, are we? Oh my days. This is so good. Thanks so much. You're welcome. But what is this? Costco is even bigger than Walmart. We're in America for the first time as Europeans and they have every flavor. Look, they have big red. What's big red? This is a big blue as well. Fast pro shop. I don't have words. What are we looking at right now? America is just like the movies and I can't believe it. We saw this school bus on the way back from Fort Worth, Texas today. And I think I'm too English to understand, but do people actually get this to school every single day? Yes. Yes. School buses are real. School buses are real. Okay. Show that to all of the mopey high school kids walking around convinced that America is this horrible place. Show that video. Bring these videos on. Europeans are loving America as we've seen online. Thank you, World Cup, for reminding any doubters, young and old, that America is a pretty cool place. Hey, listen, we may not have extravagant, gorgeous buildings from the 1500s like Europe, but what we've built here, thanks to freedom, liberty, capitalism, individualism, what we have built here is something that really is unique to the rest of the world. And I am loving this appreciation of America. Tell the kids, tell the kids, show the kids, share this with the kids. Welcome to Parent Alert, everybody. I'm Jill Simonian from PragerU Kids. We are here every Wednesday at 1030 a.m. Pacific time on PragerU's Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and X. We are live. Drop your comments. Tell me where you're watching from right now. Later this episode, of course, will be on our website, PragerU.com slash Parent Alert. So before I get into our official topics today that I teased at the top of the show, I want to share one more thing from World Cup coverage that caught my attention in the best and worst way possible. Something that we American parents should step up, share with our kids as soon as possible, and share in our schools. Roll this clip. It's like culture, but it's like respect for everything. Respect for the players, supporters, and also for the stadium. We are kind of honored to be here, so we don't want to make the mess and then leave it. So I think that's the reason why we're doing it. And respect for each other. Respect for each other. I don't know how many of you have seen this already, or maybe it slipped by you, but that situation where the Japanese fans were picking up the stadium after the game got me really good. Teach the kids this. Teach the kids to respect each other. Respect our surroundings. Respect our country, America. The Japanese fans cleaning up their portion of the stadium after a game. Tell teachers, tell everyone, tell school admin, tell your community, any kind of activity that you're doing right now. I cannot stress this enough, especially in the summer. Even if kids are coming to your house, teach them that cleaning up after yourself is very important. Very important. It disappoints me in a way as a mom that this clip of decent, respectful people picking up a stadium so that it wasn't, you know, left sloppy. It disappoints me that this clip went so viral because it is so uncommon for this to happen in a public place. I mean, this has gotten national news coverage. I think I saw a segment on CBS. And it went so viral because this is no longer commonplace anymore here in America. We do a lot right in America, but we, generally speaking, have completely abandoned this kind of foundational respect for one another, for our surroundings, for our institutions, for these big, amazing spaces like stadiums and Costco's and movie theaters that we've built here in America. We need to re-instill respect and manners in our social structure. I mean, this is not a joke, okay? Respect for our surroundings. Parents, we can do this. I, myself, am famous for gently, and sometimes not so gently, barking at kids, whether they're in my house or if we're out and about, saying, pick up your stuff. You better leave this place better than we found it, whether we're at the park, at the movie theater. I'm the mom who makes my kids pick up our sodas and popcorns and wrappers and napkins from the movie theater before we leave. American schools used to teach, leave a place better than how you found it. Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts used to teach that. No more. And it's up to us parents to restore this kind of respect in our homes, at our schools, in our communities. It's not okay to be a mob of slobs. It's not okay to be a mob of slobs. Bring back respect. We should love America just as much as the Japanese who were picking up the stadium do. We should love America and appreciate it just as much as the Europeans coming here and being blown away by Costco or Walmart or the coffee refills or the different varieties of soda in the store. We should be as appreciative of America as the people who are visiting us for the first time. Rant over. Drop me a comment. Tell me what you think. I don't care if I'm old-fashioned. I think we need to bring these old-fashioned manners and decency back out of respect for one another through our differences. Rant over. Our big education headline this week, in case you may have missed it. I don't think this audience would have missed it because it is something that is so big. Gender secrecy at schools has officially been blocked by a court. Here we go. On June 18th, a federal appeals court granted a major victory for parental rights. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked the enforcement of California's law AB 1955. This was the one that back in 2024. This was the California law that straight up prevented school districts and teachers from requiring that a child's parent be informed if that said child, if the parent's own child was adopting a different gender identity at school. So this was gender secrecy at school, not telling the parents this California law AB 1955 that was signed into law in 2024. This recent decision just said this is unconstitutional. So this is big, big news. This is a win for parental rights, not only here in California, but setting a precedent, hopefully, for the rest of the nation. Because as we know, what starts and happens in California doesn't stay in California. If you look up this recent decision, if any person were to Google this decision just to find some random articles about it, you might find an article by EdSource.org, like I did. And let's bring up the graphic. EdSource.org is a very mainstream, educational, quite frankly, left-leaning digital outlet. So EdSource.org says this about the recent court decision restoring parental rights. It says, Assembly Bill 1955, known as the Safety Act, was passed in 2024 to protect children from families who could be hostile to their transgender children. But a growing movement called for parents' rights have demanded an end to the law. So I thought that was kind of interesting and funny, as it always is, because you'll notice that parents' rights, according to EdSource, are in quotation marks, as though it's a pretend thing, as though parental rights are not real, as though it's something that we've all made up. EdSource, again, is known as a mainstream, educational authority. So when average, uninformed people look up this decision saying, hey, I kind of want to, what is this going on? Everyone's talking about it. They're going to see the words protect, and they're going to see the families who are hostile, and they're going to be misguided, obviously. Reminder to all, parental rights are fundamental. They are protected, outlined in our Constitution. Also, just to put this in perspective, just to put this in perspective, according to research from UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute, it's estimated that nearly 50,000 of California youth between the ages of 13 to 17, so California minors, minors in California, there's about 50,000 of them, according to Williams Institute, that identify as transgender. That breaks down to about 2% of minors statewide. Two percent, an extreme minority. So California's government, and I was just thinking about this as a mom, California's government was requiring teachers and administrators to lie to parents, you know, this blanket law that was preventing teachers and school administrators from telling parents if their child was having identity issues at school, for 2% of the alleged population. I also ask, what happened, so never mind the 2%, okay, it's an extreme minority, but additionally, what happened to teachers and schools being mandated reporters for things happening on campus? There used to be a time when teachers were mandated to report any kind of mental health problems, any type of physical problems, any type of behavioral problems that were happening on campus, they were mandated to report it to the parents. So what happened to that? Separate question. Back to what went down last week regarding this decision. Just drop a comment, tell me what you think. The Ninth Circuit Court, cut to now, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that our U.S. Constitution protects a parent's right to know what is happening with their own child at school, or anywhere for that matter, and that California's law forbids what our U.S. Constitution demands. This case was the city of Huntington Beach versus Newsom, Governor Newsom of California. So what happened was a three-judge panel granted a preliminary injunction protecting seven parent plaintiffs from the enforcement of this gender secrecy law, AB 1955, that passed back in 2024. The same panel had twice denied this relief before. So what happened? What made them change their minds? The U.S. Supreme Court. A little lesson in civics right now, right? U.S. Supreme Court, in the case Mirabelli versus Bonta, and that's Rob Bonta, the Attorney General of California, which was originally filed in 2023, the Supreme Court held that California's school gender secrecy policies likely violate parents' rights under the Free Exercise Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Constitution. So let's pull up what happened. Again, this, what I'm about to share with you, was found on the CaliforniaFamily.org website. This was a summary of how this, you know, this court decision has now restored parental rights. So, quoting the Supreme Court, and you can look up the full article on CaliforniaFamily.org, quoting the Supreme Court, the panel wrote that parents, not the state, have primary authority with respect to the upbringing and education of children. That authority, the court explained, includes the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children's mental health. When a child shows signs of gender distress at school, parents have a constitutional right to be told, to be informed. It's that simple. This is a win. What happened this last week was a win. This is serious hope for the restoration of common sense and order, if you will. Again, here in California, but hopefully setting a precedent for the rest of the nation. This court decision, I'm going to say this right now, from mom to mom, parent to parent, you know, citizen to citizen, this court decision needs to be committed to each and every one of our memories and to be put at the very front of our brain so that we can call upon this information when needed. In a school atmosphere, in activities, in sports, we parents, it is imperative that we parents have the courage to reject unconstitutional happenings in our kids' activities and in our kids' lives and education, whether this is about transgenderism or lessons being taught in the classroom. I'm going to read a part of the decision again so that we are all informed again. Commit this to memory. Put this in the front of your brain. The authority of parents, the court explained, includes the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children's mental health. As a mom, I interpret mental health as including one-to-one screens for kindergarten, first grade, second graders in schools, sex ed lessons that are age-inappropriate, curriculum that attacks my family values. The Supreme Court has reminded everyone and certified now that we parents have the right to raise and educate our own children. The right was always there. This is nothing new. This is nothing new. But many times we need to be reminded because, again, I repeat, I've talked about this before, civics education has been failing for decades now and we parents, unfortunately, I think are the illustrative point of most people not knowing what is in our constitution, what's not in our constitution, how our system of government works, and that the authority over our children to raise and educate them really does lie with we the people and not the institutions. So keep this in mind when school starts in the fall. Repeat it to yourself this summer. I certainly will. Okay. And until then, double down on reinforcing what our kids should be learning. Drop me a comment. Tell me what you think. I'm going to read comments near the end of this episode. In the meantime, I have an idea for something that you can share with your youngest children this summer. Let's roll the clip. Don't forget the Coast Guard. Thank you, Mr. Miller. That looks nice on you. It's so cool. It does. You know, the Coast Guard protects our coasts and rivers and they help rescue people during storms. And their motto is Semper Paratus, which is Latin for always ready. I'm always ready for a song. Okay, drop a comment if you did not know that our U.S. Coast Guard has its own theme song. I shouldn't say theme song. It's the song. It's the official song, the anthem of our U.S. Coast Guard. You didn't think I was going to let this parent alert go by without re-upping our brand new music series for preschoolers. That was America's favorite music show for toddlers, preschoolers, even, you know, early education, kindergarten, first grade. Some of your second graders might like it. Six episodes just released, about seven minutes long. They're short. They're great for our youngest children. We've got different themes in each episode. The military, our flag, working songs, folk songs. This is the type of stuff that kids used to learn in schools. In a time when most teachers, regardless of perspective or, you know, beliefs or differences, that's when most teachers would inspire love of country and unity within the classroom through our American songs. Our American songs used to bind children together from the very beginning through our differences. I think it created a foundation for how we were all able to grow and feel connected to each other through our differences from our earliest years. So this is the kind of unifying patriotism that has disappeared from schools. You know, now parents are worried about things like, just as we were talking about previously in the previous block, you know, teaching transgenderism to young children. We've brought back the basics. We've been taught teaching the songs that should unify us to create a foundation of camaraderie between all of us as Americans. We brought it back. So we're giving it. Use it. Please, please use it. Use it. Listen to it in your car. Share it with your youngest students at camps, at school, when it starts in the fall. For America 250, hello, we're counting down one week away, right? America's favorite music show is for free for you to watch. PragerUKids.com, check it out. Okay, on to my next. It was like, where the heck did that music show come? Of course, I'm going to share our offerings with you here at Parent Alert. Okay, up next on my need-to-know headlines from what's happening in education. Buckle up for this one. Nothing surprises me anymore. I wish this surprised me, but it didn't. In Massachusetts, a Massachusetts middle school principal recently felt the need to send an email apology to students who were presented a history lesson about the Holocaust. Drop a comment right now if you are in Massachusetts and you have any firsthand information about this. If you've heard about this story, it reportedly happened a few weeks ago. Here's what happened. William Diamond Middle School in Lexington, Massachusetts. So apparently this school is a very high-performing middle school. Students there reportedly perform very well in math. Their school allegedly ranks somewhere fifth, it says here, overall in reading scores. Well, a few weeks ago, there was a seventh-grade history lesson that taught students about the Holocaust in a classroom. I remember personally learning about the Holocaust when I was in the seventh grade. And it was actually the first time that I had ever heard about the Holocaust. I remember it very vividly as being so disturbed and sad and shook. I couldn't wrap my mind around how something like that could have happened in history. Teaching about the Holocaust used to be mandatory. It's part of World War II history. Let's not forget. Now, apparently, school administrators or some administrators feel the need to apologize for teaching history. And listen, I am the first person to say every piece of history should be taught at age-appropriate levels. I am the first person to say that. I will always stand by that. History needs to be taught at age-appropriate levels. You're not going to spill every single detail about U.S. history to a kindergartner in the same way that you would discuss it with an 11th grader. Okay, so everything needs to be age-appropriate. That said, I do not know the details of this particular Holocaust lesson. But the information that I received, I do want to share with you because it made me think about something else that I'll discuss after. So let's read right now this principal's letter out loud from William Diamond Middle School. And there it is. You can read along. I'm just going to go through and read some parts. So this principal's name, Johnny Cole, dear 7th grade students. So I'm assuming that this email also went out to the students. I'm hoping it also went out to the parents. A few weeks ago, your class participated in a session about antisemitism, connecting the learning you had done in social studies class about the Holocaust to the modern world. Okay, the goal was an important one to help you recognize hate, understand where it comes from, and encourage you to speak up against it. This is an important goal that is very important to the Lexington community. So then the letter continues saying, we have learned from speaking to some of your families that the experience did not feel that way to some of you. Some of you felt unseen. Some of you felt like your own history, your identity, or community was left out or erased. Some of you left that session feeling less safe, not more. We have heard this from families and we believe you. We are sorry. Not because the topic was too hard. Hard conversations are part of growing up and a part of what we do here at Diamond. We are sorry because every one of you deserves to walk into the school and feel that who you are matters. Arab students, Jewish students, Lebanese students, Muslim students, Palestinian students, every student. And in this case, we missed the mark and did not achieve what we hoped to do. Here's what we are doing next. And this is the part that caught my attention. We are working with your teachers and with families in our community to build something better. A way of learning about hate, prejudice, and justice that includes all of your communities and all of our histories. We are also going to ask some of you, our students, to help us shape what that looks like to you because you have already shown us you have important things to say. And then it says if you want to talk to a teacher, counselor, you know, please, we're here for you. All of those things. Sincerely, Dr. Johnny Cole. Okay, so a few thoughts about this as a mom. Again, everybody deserves dignity and respect regardless of heritage, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of perspective. We all deserve dignity and respect. We should respect each other. E Pluribus Unum, one of our American mottos, out of many, one. We are here in America out of many, one. Being here in America also, and you know, I say this as a fourth generation Armenian American whose great-grandparents fled genocide to come to America so that they can live and worship freely as Armenian Christians. Coming to America also means that you appreciate and love and accept American values. Okay, so that's what I'm going to say. Everyone deserves dignity and respect here in America. But this part in the letter caught my attention. Some of you felt like your own history, your identity, or your community was left out or erased. So when, and this is my question, and help me out with this in the comments. Okay, I'm thinking out loud here with you live. When did teaching history become centered about your identity? To me, that is an illustration of an extremely self-centered, selfish, me-me-me mentality. Not every single history lesson is going to be custom-tailored to anyone's specific family background. Some historical events might not even include your heritage or identity. The next thing that stuck out to me, which is very revealing about how, frankly, corroded modern education has become, is when this was in the letter. Quote, we are working with your teachers and with families in our community to build something better. Okay, parent-teacher partnerships are very good. I'm an advocate for parent-teacher partnerships, right? In the name of dignity and respect and transparency in education. But get this, quote, we are also going to ask some of you, our students, to help us shape what that looks like because you've already shown us you have important things to say. So you're going to have kids, this is what this means to me, and please correct me if I'm mistaken or misguided or missing the mark. This seems to say, kids, hey kids, without a high school diploma yet, who are minors, who can't vote, who can't, you know, yet you're not of age to do adult things, you're going to shape what the lessons should look like. Does this make anyone else kind of say what the what's going on here? And we wonder, as adults, why so many young Americans seem entitled, yet very unknowledgeable. Let's go to the comments. I think it's time. We're gonna go to the comments. Okay, let's go to the comments. Oh, okay, I have a lot of comments here. Let me move this over. So, I am going to start from the beginning here. Let's see. Oh, comment from Instagram. Thanks, Instagram. Watching from Miami. We love PragerU. We love what you provide. Also from Instagram, other team fans started doing this too. I'm assuming that these are about, this comment is about the Japanese fans picking up the stadium. Thank you for that. Loved it. Let's see. That's why, this is from Instagram. That's why we pay the ticket prices so someone else can do it for us. Oh, I disagree from Instagram. Arty Music, if you're still watching. No, we do not pay the ticket prices so that we can be mob. We do not pay ticket prices so that can be a mob of slobs. That's not what we pay ticket prices for. It degrades our society and it bleeds into every part of our culture which continues to, you know, not be excellent. And in America, we should still want to be excellent. Okay, let's see. Also from Instagram. I always take my trash to the receptacles on the way out. It's the way I was raised. Thank you. Good, good parenting. Okay, also from Instagram, this comment. Thank God, Jay Traveler says, California is so messed up. I'm assuming this is the comment responding to the court decision saying that parents do, in fact, have a constitutional right, a reminder to raise and educate our children for the court decision that is blocking gender secrecy at schools. Let's see. So why hasn't PragerU made California into a red state? Captain Vigilante from YouTube. It's a fun comment. We're not here to turn things into red or blue. We're here to help people think and sort through what is happening right now, whether it's in our schools. We're here to make people think. We want people to disagree and discuss and restore that civil discourse that America was founded upon. That's what we're here for. That's what we're here for. From X, live from X. It's way less than 2%. Okay. Oh, I'm assuming that that was about transgender minors identifying. Let's see. June from Facebook. Absolutely disgusting that parents are not informed about everything their kids are involved in, should be told about everything regarding their children. We agree. Oh, hey, Will Witt. Love Jill. Will, if you're still watching from Instagram, thank you. Also from Instagram. Lux Living Reviews. Amen. Be bold. Be brave. Be a protector of our children. Music is one of the best ways to teach children. Also from Lux Living Reviews. Thank you for that. Check out America's Favorite Music Show. There's the shameless plug again. All right. Thank you for those comments, everybody. Okay. So, that said, that said, I might not agree with everything you think or say, but I will always defend your ability to say it. I will always defend our ability to discuss it, to argue about it, and to maybe get each other to think about things in a different way that we haven't thought of before. It's happened to me many, many times here where I will read through comments after the fact and have a second thought about something and say, you know what, maybe I was a little short-sighted on that. And I hope that the same thing happens to you. Also, that said, I don't want to water down any of our convictions. Okay. But that's what sets the United States of America apart from every other nation on earth. We have an enshrined right to free speech and freedom of expression and civil discourse. So, let's end today's Parent Alert because we're almost out of time. Oh, yeah, we're almost out of time. Let's end today's Parent Alert on a high note. Roll the clip. You're a grand old flag, you're a high-flying flag, and forever in peace may you wave. I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee. I'm going to Louisiana, my true love for to see. Anchors away, my boys, until we meet once more. Here's wishing you a happy voyage home. And that was Revere the Horse, right? If you've watched the series, you know that the name was Revere the Horse. Okay. So, celebrating America's 250th birthday is next week. That, of course, if you follow us on Instagram at PragerUKids, that was one of our fun, short, and sweet advertisements for our new music sing-along show for preschoolers called America's Favorite Music Show. And that was the ad for the book. This is the official song book for America's Favorite Music Show. The stories. Oh, my Bonnie. This is one of the folk songs highlighted in one of our episodes. If you can see this, this is not only for America's 250th birthday, but stories of American folk songs, railroad songs, working songs, patriotic songs, military songs, the explanations, what the songs mean, where they came from, and then also the sheet music for a little bit of music education that we're trying to put back into our culture. Oh, Susanna, Daisy Bell, Bicycle Built for Two. This is on PragerUKids.com. Fun, fun, fun. I mean, 4th of July, Independence Day, is like our Super Bowl here at PragerUKids, so pardon me while I do a little show-and-tell. Something else for our middle readers. The Signers. Graphic novel telling the story of America's founders signing the Declaration of Independence. This is our first graphic novel. You will never look at America's founding fathers the same way again. They're essentially superheroes in this book. I think this is Ben Franklin with his glasses. And it's the heroic story of the Declaration of Independence. This is for middle readers. This is for kids to, you know, if you're traveling this summer, get this to, you know, just reinstate the values and the knowledge about the history. Oh, look, it's King George. Okay, so The Signers. So we have America's favorite music show songbook. We have The Signers graphic novel. But wait, there's more. We have our Independence Day ceremony book. This is for the whole family. This is a detailing of our founders talking about what it took to sign the Declaration of Independence, the process, how these 56 men essentially signed their names on a death warrant for King George III. And in this is our beautiful, meaningful, short and sweet 10-minute Independence Day. Oh, there's details about all the founders, even the names you don't know. Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, all of these guys, signers by state. But in this book included is also our Declaration ceremony, as we call it, the Independence Day ceremony, the ritual where you can gather your family around the table, read some short readings about the Boston Tea Party and the salty tears of the soldiers at Valley Forge and have a little, it's modeled after a Jewish Seder where you enjoy little snacks and each snack has a meaning to remember the history of our U.S. This available, PragerU.com, and of course our Celebrate America board game. Oh, I can't open it for the whole family. We got all the gifts. We got all the things. This is not an infomercial, but it's me sharing with you what all of you have entrusted us and enabled us to do with your generosity. All of this cannot be done, none of this can be done without your generosity from the donors. Most of you know we're a non-profit. Every single bit of generosity that you give to us, we turn it right around and we make resources and videos and books and games to reignite our love for America, to teach the next generation what it means to be an American. So yes, Independence Day is next week. We love the barbecues. We love the lake parties. We love the boat parties. We love the fireworks. We love the beach. We love the, you know, games in the backyard, celebrations, but do not let this milestone of America's 250th pass your family by without reminding everyone why we celebrate July 4th. Our history, our founding, the sacrifices, the flawed but brilliant men who signed their names on a death warrant to establish a free republic by way of the Declaration of Independence. Find all of these resources at PragerU.com and PragerUKids.com. We are out of time. Thank you for being here as usual. Thank you for joining Parent Alert today, sharing your comments. Subscribe for free to PragerUKids.com for new resources sent to your inbox for free to enjoy, to watch for free. Lesson plans, parent resources for U.S. and world history, patriotism, good character, civics, financial literacy, and more. And now music. I love this series so much because, yeah, I'm in the series. Okay, links to our PragerUKids resources that I shared here are in the description wherever you're watching from. God bless you all. See you next time. Next week we're going to do something really, really special for Independence Day. You're not going to want to miss it. And you can grab your kids for the live on July 1st next week. Okay, God bless you. See you next time on Parent Alert.