A group of California middle school teachers are suing their school district and the California State Board of Education over policies requiring them to lie to parents if a child claims a gender identity other than their biological sex.
The scheme is part of an aggressive new push to separate kids from parents if a child claims to be transgender and even file criminal charges against parents who do not “affirm” the child’s stated identity.
The federal lawsuit “charges administrators at the Escondido Union School District, California State Board of Education, and Rincon Middle School, with violations of the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment,” according to attorneys from the Thomas More Society, who are representing the teachers.
The suit claims teachers were ordered to blindly obey and agree if a child claimed a gender identity other than their biological sex and to either hide that information from parents or blatantly lie to parents if asked.
These policies force middle and elementary school teachers to aid in a student’s transgender “social transition” by:
* unhesitatingly accepting a child’s assertion of a transgender or gender-diverse identity
* immediately using any pronouns or a gender-specific name requested by a student during school
* but reverting to biological pronouns and legal names when speaking with parents in order to actively hide information about a child’s gender identity from his or her parents.
Two of the teachers suing the district, Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, sought an exemption from the policy, citing their Christian beliefs. The school district granted an accommodation regarding the use of preferred pronouns and gender-specific names during the school day but ordered Mirabelli and West to lie to parents if asked.
Teachers were ordered to tell parents that any questions about their child’s gender identity “is outside of the scope of the intent of their interaction” and that they can only discuss “information regarding the student’s behavior as it relates to school, class rules, assignments, etc.”
Teachers are warned that “revealing a student’s transgender status to individuals who do not have a legitimate need for the information, without the student’s consent,” is prohibited.
The policy also declares that parents “do not have a legitimate need for the information” about their child’s gender identity.
“All of this is to be done without parent or guardian agreement or knowledge. Schools routinely send notes home to parents about trivial matters, like missing homework, so it is unfathomable that Escondido Union School District has a policy that forces teachers to withhold from parents some of the most fundamental and basic information about their children,” explained Paul Jonna, Thomas More Society Special Counsel and Partner, LiMandri and Jonna LLP.
“The real outrage here,” declared Jonna, “is that schools are requiring educators to hide critical information from parents about their child’s well-being. Rather than partnering with parents to help raise up young people with a well-rounded education and breadth of knowledge, these radical agendas are pitting parents and teachers against one another, to the detriment of their students.”
“Schools should be a safe place for children, one that parents can trust with their child’s welfare,” continued Jonna, “but the actions of the Escondido Union School District and Rincon Middle School administrators deliberately foster enmity between families and educators. Parents and teachers should be outraged at being manipulated in this manner.”
“It boils down to the need for a basic trust in the institutions that we support with our tax dollars to protect and defend our children. Public schools should never hide information from or lie to parents about a child’s mental health or personal circumstances,” Jonna emphasized. “And schools should never compel teachers to perpetrate such a deception.”
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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