Two sitting Rocklin Unified School District trustees who once sat on opposite sides of a contentious 4-1 vote are now running against each other for the same seat, and the policy that split them still has not taken effect more than three years after it passed. Michelle Sutherland and Tiffany Saathoff, both incumbents now living in Trustee Area 2, are competing for one board seat in the Nov. 3 election, forcing voters to weigh in on a parental-notification fight that has outlasted multiple courtroom rounds.
The district's board voted 4-1 in September 2023 to require teachers and staff to notify parents when a student asked to use a different name, pronouns or gender identity, or sought access to certain school facilities inconsistent with their sex at birth, according to The Sacramento Bee. Saathoff voted for the policy, while Sutherland cast the lone dissenting vote, as CapRadio reported. Under the policy, a parent or guardian was to be notified within three school days by a teacher, counselor or site administrator, per FOX40, though notification could be delayed up to 48 hours if credible evidence suggested telling a student's parents might jeopardize the child's safety.
A Policy Still Stuck in Legal Limbo
The policy has never gone into effect. CapRadio reports it triggered lawsuits and remains tied up in the courts, having become the subject of a labor dispute and legal proceedings after it was adopted. Rocklin Unified is also shifting from at-large elections to by-district elections, a change the district made in 2022 according to the same CapRadio report, and Trustee Area 2 is where the Sutherland-Saathoff rematch is playing out. Six candidates in total are running for three seats on the board this fall, CapRadio notes.
Saathoff has defended her vote by arguing that notification opens the door to conversation between families and schools. Speaking to FOX40, she said, “if there is not a notification there can not be a dialogue.” Saathoff has said parents should be told when a student's requested name change is shared with classmates, teachers and parent volunteers, and she lists parent voice as a campaign priority, describing herself as committed to parental rights in education and to supporting parents as primary decision-makers, and saying parents are critical partners in their children's education.
Sutherland Draws a Different Line
Sutherland has taken the opposite position, telling The Sacramento Bee that she does not support a one-size-fits-all government mandate requiring teachers to notify parents of a student's name preference or pronouns. She has said disclosing such information to a parent could put a student at risk of serious harm or neglect, and that schools should instead ensure students have trusted adults on campus to help with sensitive situations while still encouraging communication between students and their parents when appropriate. Rather than a blanket notification requirement, Sutherland has said she supports considering an approach based on changes to a student's official records.
That records-based framework echoes a revision adopted in another California district. Chino Valley Unified has a revised policy that triggers notification based on changes to student records rather than gender identity directly, according to ABC7. Chino Valley's original policy, adopted in summer 2023, was met with a court injunction that September after a judge found it appeared to unconstitutionally target a specific group of students, the outlet reported. A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge later left most of that injunction in place, and the Bee has separately reported that a judge in the same county paused Chino Valley's rules after California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office sued, alleging violations of students' constitutional rights.
Where the Rocklin Case Stands
Rocklin Unified's policy has faced its own setbacks. The California Public Employment Relations Board concluded in January 2025 that the policy violated state law and ordered the district to rescind it, per the seed-story sourcing behind this report. The district challenged that decision, taking its fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear Rocklin Unified's case in June, leaving the labor board's order in place. With the policy still unenforced and the legal record unresolved on several fronts, voters in Area 2 are left to decide the matter through the ballot box instead, choosing between the trustee who wrote the policy's opposition and the one who championed it.
