America First Legal sued the Pine-Richland School District in Pennsylvania, for promoting gender transitions among its students and hiding it from their parents.
According to the lawsuit, district regulations regarding privacy ensure that students can keep their "transgender status" secret, even from their parents or guardians. They also maintain that the silence can only be broken by court order or if the minor allows it:
To ensure the safety and well-being of the student, District personnel should not disclose a student’s transgender status to others, including the student’s parents/guardians or other District personnel, unless: (1) legally required to do so, or (2) the student has authorized such disclosure.
BREAKING: America First Legal SUES Pennsylvania school district to stop its horrifying practice of secret “gender transitions” on minor boys and girls — and hiding it from parents. The war on America’s children must end. https://t.co/lubmEezVqJ
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) January 12, 2024
The same policy indicates that the district must have a Student Support Team, "a/k/a Gender Transition Team," to "discuss a timeline for the transition in order to create the conditions supporting a safe and accepting environment at the school." This was all to be "without any involvement of the student’s parents whatsoever."
Educators and other staff members were also instructed to treat students by their preferred pronouns and names while at school but to avoid using them when speaking with parents or sending messages home.
The staff would also receive "training" from a psychologist and a legal team to comply with these guidelines, which also include: using the student's preferred pronouns on all school records or documents, allowing the student to use any bathroom they choose and allowing the student to choose whether to participate on male or female sports teams.
More than just guidelines
District directors told a mother that under no circumstances would she be told if her child asked to use alternative pronouns, another name or if they displayed any "other exhibited behavior consistent with gender dysphoria or a desire to transition."
Identified as "Jane Doe," the mother sued the school district, choosing AFL as a representative. She was concerned, the lawsuit says, that if her child shows signs of gender confusion:
The school will immediately begin affirming her before Doe knows and can take steps to help her child obtain appropriate medical care.
The lawsuit
"These schools can’t give a child an Advil without parental consent ... But these same schools will socially transition a child without any parental input," Nicholas Barry, an AFL lawyer who brought the lawsuit, said of the case. For this reason, he asked the court to eliminate the district's regulations and award compensation to the plaintiff.
"a parent’s decision-making authority about what is in their child’s best interest cannot be transferred to some agent of the government simply because a child or the government disagrees with the parent’s lawful decision," Barry added. "That is tyranny."
Jane Doe vs. Pine-richland School District by Santiago Adolfo Ospital on Scribd
