Schools can't out their transgender students, Mendez says in denying injunction
By Leslie Layton | Posted March 14, 2023
Senior U.S. District Judge John Mendez
An effort to force Chico Unified School District (CUSD) staff to obtain “informed consent” from parents before “socially transitioning” a youth who identifies as transgender has stalled in federal court.
A federal judge has denied a request made in the Regino v. Staley lawsuit, filed against CUSD over a gender identity case, that the district be immediately stopped from accomodating any student who identifies with a gender different than what appears on school records without first contacting the parents.
Under the policy that has been left intact for the moment, schools can change pronouns at the student’s request and must allow the student to participate in activities based on their gender identity, which, in the case of a transgender student, may not match their assigned sex. The parents will not be informed unless the student gives consent.read more
ACLU files motion, asking to join with CUSD defendants
By Leslie Layton | Posted March 8, 2023
Aurora Regino, who grew up in Chico, has filed suit against CUSD trustees and the superintendent.
A lawsuit filed against Chico Unified over its response to a student who was questioning their gender identity has opened a new front for Butte County culture wars.
The lawsuit, Regino v. Staley, filed Jan. 6 in federal court in the Eastern District of California, alleges that a school counselor at Sierra View Elementary coaxed a student into adopting a male identity after the fifth-grader confided that they “felt like a boy.” The lawsuit names as defendants the Board of Education and Chico Unified (CUSD) Superintendent Kelly Staley.
The ACLU of Northern California said late today that it has filed a motion to join the lawsuit “on the side of the Chico Unified School District and on behalf of the Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network.” The presiding judge will rule on the motion.read more
The lack of information and help frustrate local patients
By Natalie Hanson | Posted February 17, 2023
Kathryn Robinson, who was formerly a classical music director at Northstate Public Radio, said her music has brought her great comfort.
Kathryn Robinson never expected that when she contracted COVID-19 in 2021, she would face life-altering symptoms for more than 15 months.
The Chico resident was fully vaccinated when she experienced a mild case of the Delta variant in August 2021. Three days into her symptoms, Robinson lost all sense of taste and smell. Like many COVID patients, she did not get those senses back for several months.
After recovering, Robinson said she awoke months later on Thanksgiving Day smelling what seemed like “sewage” all around her. She said chicken prepared for the holiday dinner tasted like “something rotten dipped in cleaning fluid.” It was then that she realized her sense of taste and smell were altered, a state she learned is called a combination of “parosmia” and “dysgeusia” -– altered smell and taste.read more
As cold-season viruses spread, barriers to health care seem to grow
By Natalie Hanson | Posted January 12, 2023
photo by Karen Laslo
Program Manager Norma Lacy
The COVID pandemic continues to impact California’s farmworkers and their access to health care -– particularly in more isolated rural zones like the Northern Sacramento Valley, doctors say.
The “tripledemic” — as flu and RSV add to the surging respiratory illnesses sweeping the nation -– may worsen existing barriers to health care access that marginalized communities face. In Butte County, health providers say it is hard to know which communities have been hit hardest by the virus, but they believe it is harder to reach essential worker communities like California’s farmworkers.
Nonprofit organizations have been working with local public health agencies to reach these communities, including “Promotores,” a program under Northern Valley Catholic Social Service. But there are ongoing struggles.read more
Older data will make it harder to track trends, Hammond says
By Natalie Hanson | Posted November 17, 2022
photo courtesy of Christian Hammond, who used Butte County Public Health data for his Covid-tracking database.
During the past few months, Butte County -– like many California counties — has scaled down its local COVID data collection process.
The change comes after two years of maintaining a database displayed on the Public Health Department website that was based on data gathered daily from local medical service providers.
Now the county is relying on state data that is updated only once per week -– and that worries data wizards like Christian Hammond. Hammond, who runs the Unofficial Butte County COVID-19 Dashboard -– separate from the dashboard managed by public health –- said only getting updated data weekly will further impede what is already a slow, flawed way to study the novel coronavirus.read more
Update: At a Nov. 16 hearing, a judge suspended criminal proceedings in this case and ordered a psychological examination of Thomas Bona that will be delivered Dec. 21. Bona had refused to come to court for the hearing.
Thomas David Bona, who has been in and out of the Butte County courtrooms and jail during the past 16 years, now faces felony charges with hate crime enhancements in connection with two recent graffiti incidents.
Bona is scheduled to be back in court Nov. 16 on charges related to the discovery of swastikas etched into the Murdered & Missing Indigenous Women mural at Cedar and Second streets and on the Congregation Beth Israel sign at the local synagogue. Both the mural and the temple sign had been partially burned. He’s also charged with throwing a rock through the window of a local restaurant.read more
