Andrew Hayes Protects East County Parents
- East County Guardian
- Jan 20, 2024
- 3 min read
Andrew Hayes, the school board president for Lakeside Union School District, has been a champion for parental rights, conservative values, and putting student’s needs above all else. His position to make sure students are protected and parental rights are supported was solidified in his motion at the LUSD board meeting on January 18th, 2024. Hayes and the LUSD school board members discussed how their board policy conflicts with 5145.3 AR. 5145.3 AR is known as the administrative regulation that would direct school staff to keep secrets from parents. This is not a regulation related solely to any community. The secret could be medical changes and mental health concerns that the student would like to keep private. Parents feel that they should be included in their children’s lives both at school and at home. LUSD school board with the leadership of Andrew Hayes motioned to suspend the enforcement of 5145.3 AR and the motion passed 5-0. Hayes read a statement from the ruling in the Escondido Union School District that called 5145.3 AR a “trifecta of harm” in his reasoning for suspending the enforcement of the regulation. The trifecta of harm is about the harm of students, parents, and staff. The LUSD school board acknowledged that their board policy prevails over the AR regulation and will direct staff to be partners with parents when it comes to student matters.
Administrative Regulation 5145.3 has been a hot topic across the state of California. Leaders in the community have been challenging the new state guidance. Escondido Union School District staff, Chino Valley’s board president Sonja Shaw, and the Temecula Valley school board have been leading the charge to protect parent’s rights to be the ultimate authority over their children’s upbringing and care. In East County, Andrew Hayes is the first to successfully motion in the direction of parental rights in his historic and successful suspension of 5145.3 AR. School board member Anthony Carnevale from Cajon Valley Union School District has asked for parent’s rights and 5145.3 AR to be placed on the agenda but doesn’t have the support of his board to get it on the agenda.
Parental Rights is a nonpartisan issue that secures the parent’s rights to support and raise their children how they see fit. The government should not be overseeing the care of children without parental consent unless the state has deemed the family unsafe in a court of law. School staff are still mandated reporters and will have to report abuse or the risk of abuse when there is a concern for a student’s safety. The ideology from groups against parental rights that most homes are “not safe” is simply inaccurate. My experience from working with school staff is that most don’t want to be put in a position to lie to parents or keep secrets from them, which is why the Escondido Union School District teachers led the way in advocating against the new policies.
The best way to approach a student who needs extra help is to apply the same standards and collaboration of care that is achieved in SST (student support team) meetings for IEPs (individual education plan). Students with special needs have an SST that is made up of the parents, administrators, counselor, teachers, and anyone else who works with the student to make sure their needs are met and they get the support they need to fulfill the needs of the IEP. Parents are always involved and have the final say on how IEPs are handled and what programs will work for their students. Student Support Teams have been essential, beneficial, and a standard in most schools. Parents have always been the first line of support to their children.
In Lakeside, Andrew Hayes has made sure that parental rights will be honored. You can watch the clip of Hayes and the LUSD school board discussing 5145.3 AR in the video below.
What Andrew Hayes and the LUSD board accomplished is the first step in protecting parental rights. If you would like to help, you can sign that you support the Parent’s Bill of Rights here:
In Unity,
The East County Guardians