PERK's Amy Bohn: Newsom 'using children in this political game' of gender identity in schools
Amy Bohn is the president and co-founder of California-based PERK (Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids). The organization advocates for parental rights at the local and state level, and has been a constant thorn in the side of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Bohn sat down with Fox News Digital to discuss California's recently passed legislation, AB 1955, which would prohibit educators from informing parents when their children change their pronouns, name, or gender identity at school.
Bohn argues that the legislation is a usurpation of parental rights.
"So California's AB 1955 is, I think, one of the worst bills we've seen thus far, that prohibits parents from being notified or informed about their child, changing their gender identity or anything like that at school," she said. "So it completely prohibits educators, teachers and the school from letting parents know about any kind of change with their child. It also promotes secrecy… removing all of this information from parents, and creates a file on parents at the school level as well, a secret file."
Supporters of the legislation suggest that students are entitled to privacy. The bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Chris Ward, a Democrat who represents a San Diego-based district, argues that it affords students "the dignity of deciding when they're ready to share some of the most private information about themselves."
Minors, Bohn said, do not have the legal standing to consent to making such decisions.
"I would say that the issue in this is that a child does not have the capacity to consent. So every minor has to grow up and is developing, and a brain is not fully developed until they're 25 years old. That's science. So to even think that children have some kind of capacity to consent to something like this without their parents… that's why there are consent laws in place," she said. "And parents are there to guide, to protect, to make sure that their children are not exploited or taken advantage of. I think what he's saying is honestly utter nonsense."
Bohn said she believes that the legislation enjoys the backing of Newsom for reasons of political expediency.
"I think he wants it to go into law because I think it's a political move, to be honest. And that's also one of the problems with this bill is they're using children in this political game, this political agenda," she said. "I don't think he's concerned or cares about the children. And I think that we have seen as PERK, in California, Newsom is eroding parental rights."
While AB 1955 has been a major issue for PERK this year, the organization has also been active in other public policy battles, particularly related to educational policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bohn has been vocal against vaccine mandates in school districts.
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"I do not believe schools should be able to mandate vaccines, because that's a medical treatment. That's something that parents and doctors should be the stewards of," she said. "We've actually seen mandates across the state of California on vaccines, including the COVID mandate, and it was illegal for them to do that. They were bypassing the legislative process and the [state] Health Department."
PERK was involved in litigation challenging such policies.
"We pushed back against that. We filed lawsuits. We won those lawsuits, by the way," Bohn said. "I just don't think mandates belong anywhere in our society, because if we're supposed to be free, which we are, then mandates are completely [the] opposite of what the Constitution stands for."
Bohn and PERK also fought Newsom and the teachers unions over COVID lockdowns.
"So from the very beginning, when we heard Gov. Newsom say it was going to be two weeks to slow the spread and schools closed, we looked at each other and [we knew] this is going to be a year or longer," she said. "Immediately, within two weeks, we sent a letter to Gov. Newsom and to the legislators saying, ‘This is bad policy. We can already tell you how this is going to harm children.'"
Bohn added: "You shouldn't be implementing these kinds of lockdown measures, especially on the kids. So we started to push back immediately at the highest level. Then, we informed parents, 'This is what's going on. This is how it's going to hurt your families, your kids and their education and academic learning and the academic loss we were anticipating,' and got parents involved to push back."
PERK was credited with driving local protests and activism at school board meetings in the wake of the lengthy closures.
"So we actually brought lots of parents and people to school board meetings to encourage the schools to open back up as quickly as possible. We put out surveys. We filed lawsuits. We did a lot in the space to try to help get the schools opened back up," Bohn said. "And we're very active in representing hundreds of thousands of families and kids that needed those schools open."
Newsom's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.