New York complaint: School district promoted gender transitions without notifying parents

The Ardsley Union Free School District (AUFSD), in Westchester County, New York, is facing questions following a complaint from a parents' group that claims the district promoted content in an eighth-grade health class favorable to medicalized gender transitions without prior notification or ability to opt-out for families.

The complaint was released by parental rights organization Defending Education, which claims to have received emails from a "concerned contributor" detailing classroom use of the article "I Am Leo." The article is a first-person narrative about a teenage girl who identifies as male and describes wearing a chest girdle (binder), puberty blockers and testosterone with parental consent.

According to the group, the district did not inform the parents about the lesson or offer the option to opt their children out, despite the fact that the content addresses gender identity and medical interventions. Defending Education argues that this practice could conflict with precedent set in 2025 by the Supreme Court in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which determined that the imposition of LGBTQ content without an opt-out option may pose an unconstitutional burden on the right of parents to direct the education of their children. In that litigation, involving the Montgomery County Public Schools, the district agreed to pay $1.5 million to the plaintiffs.

A lesson as part of New York's state health education standards

The article "I'm Leo" was originally published in the educational magazine Scholastic, in its winter edition of "Choices," aimed at students in grades 7 through 12. In the text, the character recounts how she began by identifying as non-binary before deciding to present as male, wear a girdle to flatten his chest, and receive hormone treatment. The material also includes recommendations on how to be an "ally," such as respecting preferred names and pronouns, and mentions resources such as The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization focused on LGBTQ youth and functioning as a social network apparently.

According to Defending Education, the district's director of athletics and physical education, Matthew Pringle, pointed out that there is no policy that requires prior notice for individual lessons and referred to Board Policy 8330, updated months before the Supreme Court ruling. The organization claims that Superintendent Matthew Block and other officials did not respond to inquiries about how the district's approach conforms to judicial precedent.

The district, as cited by Defending Education, defended the lesson as part of the state health education standards of the New York State Department of Education, arguing that its purpose was not to "promote" a specific identity, but to foster tolerance, empathy and functional knowledge about sexual orientations and gender identities. The teacher reportedly indicated that the goal was to help make the school "safe for all students."