update for AB1266 co-ed bathroom law from "Privacy for all Students"

update for AB1266 co-ed bathroom law from "Privacy for all Students"
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Rights versus Wrong

The supporters of the co-ed bathroom law pushed the radical policy change based on the idea that a boy or girl that does not feel comfortable in traditional sex separate bathrooms should have the right to use a different bathroom without regard to his or her biological gender.

In contrast, the referendum to overturn this law emphasized the right of so many other students to privacy and safety. 

At PFAS, we stuck to our message of protecting privacy and safety rights of children and we largely ignored the accusations and bad tactics of those who opposed the referendum. 

But now in the counting stage it is becoming increasingly clear that in order for PFAS to protect the privacy and safety rights of school children, we must aggressively protect the rights of voters that signed the referendum petition.

In the week and a half since PFAS submitted 620,000 signatures to the various counties, a number of curious events have been reported. And these could jeopardize the count.

Signatures collected in the 90 day qualifying period needed to be submitted to counties based on the residency of the signer. With 58 counties, some of the petitions were delivered in person while others were sent by overnight delivery. Multiple counties have reported that they did not receive any petitions at all. Only when confronted with the receipts of delivery did the petitions appear. In one county, delivery was initially refused.

It is possible that these incidents and others are merely the consequence of bureaucracy, and that there is no reason to assume that the petitions were unprotected or vulnerable. But it is also possible that PFAS will have to fight to assure that each signature is protected, respected and counted. With a 115,000 signature margin, it is hard to imagine that enough signatures could be lost, invalidated or otherwise uncounted as to make the referendum fail to qualify. But PFAS is prepared to fight to assure that every signature is counted, and that the rights of those who signed the petitions are protected.

To be clear, most counties appear to be respecting the process and are acting professional and polite. Yet, it may only take the inappropriate actions of a few to threaten the qualification of this referendum.