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Parents, Not Bureaucrats, Raise America’s Children and the Supreme Court Agrees
The United States Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that should strike fear into woke school boards across America. In Mirabelli v. Bonta, the Court held that a California law preventing schools from disclosing to parents their child’s claimed “gender identity” at school violated parents’ free exercise rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment and their substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Supreme Court determined that California’s policy of socially transitioning children to a different gender at school without parental consent likely violates the free exercise rights of those who have “sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs.” The court went on to note that this “unconsented facilitation of a child’s gender transition is greater than the indoctrination of LGBTQ story books” that the court addressed last summer in Mahmoud v. Taylor.
The court similarly found in Mahmoud that Montgomery County Public Schools violated the rights of objecting parents. That school district paid out $1.5 million to settle the case. The court also made clear that California’s policy requiring schools to keep a student’s “gender identity” secret from parents likely violated their well-established “rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children” and that the denial of these rights “constitutes irreparable harm.”
What’s Quietly Shaping Kids While Parents Aren’t Watching
“We’re sending him to a recovery center in Bali this summer to kick his phone habit,” an exasperated mother informed me of her teenage son. I was an easy target, waiting in an empty booth for my to-go burger and fries, trying to be “in the moment” without faceplanting into Instagram. I casually ordered another overpriced pinot grigio and sympathetically touched her elbow. “Like, while he’s looking at his phone?”
As real-life proof of studies linking smartphone addiction to aggression, this kid had completely stopped talking to his parents and had seemingly resorted to kung fu. No nearby Los Angeles-based rehab centers could snap him out of the funk, so after throwing roughly $150,000 at the problem, this mother’s only hope was to send her kid to a place 8,600 miles away from his iPhone.
She hoped Indonesian fruit and flora, and perhaps a restorative bungalow over crystal blue water, could sever the electromagnetic lifeline between her sweet son’s brain and AI baddies jet-skiing with gorillas on TikTok. Or whatever he was watching. He’s not the only one. Teens self-report using social media “almost constantly.”
Gen Z hits up TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat as trusted sources of information, while Gen Alpha is into Roblox, YouTube, WhatsApp, TikTok, and Snapchat. Six-seven, no cap. Even though TikTok theoretically limits users to no younger than 13 years old, five-year-old “TikTots” open so many accounts that they have a cute nickname.
Kids Online Safety Bills Move Forward From Senate, House Panel
Bills that would seek to provide greater online protections for kids moved forward on both sides of Capitol Hill on Thursday, though a House measure was pulled back from a committee vote in a bid for bipartisan support.
The Senate passed a bipartisan bill by unanimous consent that would amend current law to enhance protections for minors regarding the collection and use of their data by online platforms and extend such protections to children and teens under the age of 17. The House Energy and Commerce Committee was set to mark up a Republican children’s data privacy bill, but the chair deferred action at the markup after he said that talks would continue between the parties.
“All of us want to protect kids. Since we’ve been here today, our staffs have continued to work toward a bipartisan agreement and both sides feel there’s been substantial progress towards a path forward,” said Chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky.
RFK Jr. Responds to Backlash Over Dunkin’ Comments
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr has responded to public backlash about his announcement that Dunkin’ Donuts will be asked to hand over “safety data,” in a call to review the health impact of its beverages.
Last week, the health secretary said at a rally in Austin: “We’re going to ask Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, ‘Show us the safety data that show that it’s okay for a teenage girl to drink an iced coffee with 115 grams of sugar in it.'” He added: “I don’t think they’re going to be able to do it.”
The comment prompted backlash online, with Americans sharing jokes and memes about the prospect of losing the chain, and even Democratic Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey joined in. Healey shared a post on X of an image of a flag appearing to be the 1835 “Come and Take It” flag first used at the start of the Texas Revolution, although in place of the usual cannon, she put a Dunkin’ cup.
Responding to the backlash on Thursday, Kennedy commented on Healey’s post from Wednesday, writing on X: “No one is taking away your Dunkin’. But isn’t it reasonable to ask whether a drink loaded with 180 grams of sugar is safe?”
Pandemic Disruptions Tied to Changes in Executive Function Progress in Young Children
The COVID-19 pandemic may have interfered with young children’s ability to stay focused, regulate their behavior, and adapt to new situations, according to a new longitudinal study published in Child Development. The study, led by researchers at the University of East Anglia in England, tracked 139 children from ages 2.5 to 6.5 years using the Minnesota Executive Function Scale. Executive function (EF) is a set of cognitive processes that includes working memory, inhibition control, and cognitive flexibility and supports self-regulation and the ability to focus.
EF can influence academic achievement, career and relationship satisfaction, and health outcomes. The study was originally designed as part of a larger longitudinal project examining the development of working memory and EF in young children. Researchers followed two cohorts across early childhood, tracking how individual differences in EF develop over time and testing whether early EF abilities predict subsequent cognitive performance.
The COVID pandemic began while the study was under way, creating a natural experiment that allowed researchers to examine whether pandemic disruptions influenced cognitive development. Because some children had completed early assessments before the pandemic, while later assessments occurred at different points after the first lockdown, the researchers were able to examine how pandemic-related disruptions might influence EF development.
Arizona Children Lose Access to Major Providers of Autism Therapy
Nearly 1,000 Arizona children have lost or will soon lose their autism therapy coverage after Medicaid insurance plans canceled contracts with two of the state’s largest providers. Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is critical to communication and life skills development and prohibitively expensive if not covered by insurance, parents and providers told Axios.
“This is not a luxury. This is the difference between a child thriving and a child disappearing back into silence,” said Elizabeth Galvez, the mother of three boys with autism, two of whom were nonverbal before ABA therapy.
Late last year, Mercy Care canceled its contracts with Action Behavior Centers (ABC) and Centria, which together have about 50 ABA facilities statewide. Another Medicaid provider, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, also canceled its contract with ABC.
Some families received temporary extensions, while others lost coverage early this year.
Trump Admin Squashes Controversial Biden Rule Forcing Foster Homes to Affirm Children’s LGBTQ+ Status
A rule implemented during the Biden administration, requiring prospective foster homes to prove they will support a child’s gender transition, or lesbian, gay or bisexual status, in order to retain federal funding, has been formally rescinded by the Trump administration Friday.
A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) was published in the federal register Friday morning to formally rescind the 2022 rule titled, “Designated Placement Requirements Under Titles IV-E and IV-B for LGBTQI+ Children,” which a court in Texas already vacated in June.
The move follows a warning letter sent to all 50 states, telling them that as long as they receive federal child welfare funding, they are obligated to ensure the removal of any kid from their home must be grounded in “objective evidence of harm or imminent risk,” citing reports of states removing children from their parent’s homes because the parents disagreed with their children’s gender transition.
Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families Alex Adams told Fox News Digital that there has been a record year-over-year decrease in the number of foster families nationally. He said that the Biden-era rule is a main issue for religious-oriented families, boxing them out of the foster care system.
