Schools Are Violating Parental Rights

Public school officials in Leon County, Florida, have asserted a right to transition gender-dysphoric kids without informing parents—and a recent appeals court ruling will allow them to keep doing it.

The ruling followed a lawsuit brought by January and Jeffrey Littlejohn, parents of a teenage girl for whom school officials secretly created a “gender support plan” and instructed staff to use different names and pronouns when speaking with her parents. In a 2-1 decision, a federal appeals court held that, even if the school did violate the Littlejohns’ parental rights, executive-branch actions like those of the school officials must also “shock the conscience” to be challenged in court.

As Ilya Shapiro argues, this novel standard is not only out of step with precedent; it also grants school officials troubling leeway to conceal major decisions from families. “Politicized school boards and taxpayer-funded administrators should be the last people we entrust with directing young people’s decisions that go far beyond educational or professional development,” he writes.

New York City has a severe housing shortage. Rents are spiraling and rental vacancy rates are plummeting. Unfortunately, according to Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Eric Kober, mayoral frontrunner Andrew Cuomo and most of his competitors aren’t serious about addressing the crisis.

Kober reviews the leading mayoral candidates’ housing plans. Some candidates pay lip service to private-sector solutions, he says, but still refuse to tell voters the truth: that they “must make room for a new generation of young adults who want to live in New York City, even if that means giving up some of their advantages.”

Read the rest of his piece here.

In Abundance, authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson acknowledge that some well-intentioned environmental laws have slowed progress. But, as Matthew E. Kahn writes, “their focus on targeted goals like housing and green energy underemphasizes the deeper political forces that have made such progress so difficult to achieve.” Kahn points out that the authors give little attention to unions and their role in shaping today’s regulatory environment. Economist Milton Friedman could probably teach them a thing or too, he argues.

Some “harm-reduction” advocates have suggested that meth-fueled orgies, popular among some in the gay community, should be celebrated, can offer a sense of belonging, and are a form of self-care.

The reality, of course, is far different. As Adam Zivo observes, “chemsex drugs, particularly meth, can trigger psychosis, homelessness, overdose, or death.” And men who pass out during these orgies are sometimes raped by other participants. “Public-health experts have warned that chemsex parties are fueling a surge in HIV infections among gay men throughout Europe,” Zivo writes.

Read his piece about the alarming practice, and the groups that endorse it, here.

The recent revival of Leonard Bernstein’s 1953 musical Wonderful Town was ripe with possibilities for relevant social commentary. But director Zhailon Levingston failed to give it a contemporary edge, writes Paul du Quenoy. Read his review here.

Charles Fain Lehman, Ilya Shapiro, John Ketcham, and Nicole Gelinas discuss the NJ Transit strike, the Palm Springs car bombing, and the New York Knicks.

“What, you mean a press and expert class that spent four years pretending that the President was not cognitively disabled and attacking anyone who suggested otherwise got COVID wrong too? I’m shocked!”

Photo credits: David McNew / Contributor / Getty Images News via Getty Images