In Ludlow, the parents say that after getting their child a counselor to help her deal with same-sex attraction, school officials disregarded an email asking them not to continue to talk with her about anything related to her health and permitted her to use different names and pronouns.Īnd in the California lawsuit, the parents allege that teachers held a secretive LGBTQ club, eventually pushing or encouraging their child to identify as transgender. In Kettle Moraine, the parents allege that the district said it would continue to allow their daughter to use a male name and pronouns even when they protested, ultimately leading them to pull her out of school. One pending lawsuit against the Spreckels Union district in California was filed under the California Tort Claims Act-a step plaintiffs have to take before formally suing public entities in that state.Īt their heart, each of the lawsuits get at a scenario that is both increasingly common and poses a difficult challenge for educators: What should schools do when a child confides in an educator-or shows signs that they might be struggling -with gender identity? They are about evenly split between state and federal courts. district in early 2020 other lawsuits have been filed against the Montgomery County, Md., Kettle-Moraine, Wis. The first appears to have been filed against the Madison, Wis. In a review of news clips and legal filings, Education Week found about a half-dozen lawsuits. (It is not involved in any of the lawsuits.) Scope of the lawsuits “I can’t help but recognize that although ‘parents’ rights’ have been proposed as the basis and framework for a lot of these things, a larger concern is not necessarily parents’ rights, but parental fear of LGBTQ people, and trying to control access to that by young people,” said Kell Olson, a staff attorney at Lambda Legal, an organizations specializes in LGBTQ rights cases. The lawsuits, they point out, have been filed as states debate and enact new laws that restrict transgender students’ ability to play on sports teams that align with their gender identity, restrict what teachers can teach about gender identity, and require schools to inform parents if students show signs of discomfort with their gender.
Given that context, LGBTQ rights organizations say they’re concerned that at base the lawsuits aren’t so much about legal clarity as they are further advancing a legislative agenda that’s already well underway. Conversely, affirming transgender students can improve their mental health and academic outcomes. Research shows that transgender adolescents feel less safe at school, have higher rates of suicide ideation, and are disproportionately represented among unhoused youth, at least partly due to rejection at home. There are no firm estimates, but based on a small population survey the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that a little less than 2 percent of high school students identify as transgender. “Kids have their parents to protect them because they’re not able to do so until they reach maturity, and I think often will misunderstand whether the parents are supportive or not.”įor school administrators, the tension is difficult to square because transgender students constitute a uniquely vulnerable-and growing-group. “The central issue in the case is parental rights to their children and knowing what’s going on in the school with their children, and by this policy, that is being denied,” said Rick Claybrook, a lawyer representing the parents in a lawsuit against the Montgomery County, Md. Constitution’s 14th Amendment-which broadly gives parents the right to direct their child’s upbringing, health, and welfare-or of state constitutions, which rely heavily on the federal equal-protection language and case law. Those actions, they say, are violations of the U.S.