{"id":405,"date":"2026-03-11T01:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/?p=405"},"modified":"2026-03-11T01:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:26:14","slug":"california-mom-speaks-out-after-school-gender-with-sonja-shaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/2026\/03\/11\/california-mom-speaks-out-after-school-gender-with-sonja-shaw\/","title":{"rendered":"California Mom Speaks Out After School Gender with Sonja Shaw"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HXB2djYVMFI\">California Mom Speaks Out After School Gender Identity Conflict | Guest Host Sonja Shaw &#8211; YouTube<\/a><br><br>In this emotional and eye-opening episode of Around Town with Matt Ward, we sit down with Ellie, a Northern California mother whose family\u2019s life changed dramatically after concerns arose over how her daughter\u2019s school handled conversations about gender identity. Ellie shares her family\u2019s journey \u2014 from Ukraine to Massachusetts and eventually California \u2014 searching for safety, opportunity, and stability for her daughter after years of bullying and emotional struggles. What she did not expect were discussions about gender identity happening at school without her knowledge. According to Ellie, those events triggered escalating conflict with school officials and ultimately led to Child Protective Services becoming involved. Today, her daughter is in foster care, and Ellie says she has limited information about her child\u2019s well-being and medical decisions. This episode focuses on her experience \u2014 not rhetoric \u2014 and explores the larger questions it raises: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 How are California schools navigating gender identity conversations with minors? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 What role should parents play in those decisions? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 How can disagreements between families and institutions escalate so quickly? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Special Guest Host: Sonja Shaw, candidate for California Superintendent of Public Instruction, joins us to discuss the policy implications and what this means for families across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California Mom Speaks Out After School Gender Identity Conflict | Guest Host Sonja Shaw\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HXB2djYVMFI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California Mom Speaks Out After School Gender Identity Conflict | Guest Host Sonja Shaw &#8211; YouTube In this emotional and eye-opening episode of Around Town with Matt Ward, we sit down with Ellie, a Northern California mother whose family\u2019s life changed dramatically after concerns arose over how her daughter\u2019s school handled conversations about gender identity. Ellie shares her family\u2019s journey [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fight-for-sanity-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407,"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions\/407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shastaforukraine.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}