evidence: SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law Assembly Bill 1955, a bill that takes the unprecedented and outrageous step of instructing school districts to lie to and keep secrets from parents about their own children. Introduced by Assemblyman Chris Ward (D-San Diego), AB 1955 was pushed through the legislature as a "gut and amend" bill — outside of the normal legislative calendar — to invalidate the popular parental notification policies enacted by local school boards across the state. The policies require school administrators to inform parents if their child changes their name or gender on official school records. [...] AB 1955 also opens the door to child exploitation. Creating a culture of secrecy from parents at school will lead to unsafe school environments where predators are able to more easily groom vulnerable children. Ward and other AB 1955 sponsors have disingenuously defended their bill as needed to protect students from "forced outing" to unaccepting and abusive parents.