Supreme Court: California parents may be told about their transgender child at school

WASHINGTON- The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a San Diego judge’s order and said parents have the right to know their child’s gender identity at school.

The ruling was 6-3, granting an emergency appeal to attorneys for the Chicago-based Thomas More Society.

They said California’s student privacy policy infringes on parents’ rights and the free exercise of religion.

“Parents object that these policies prevent schools from informing them of their children’s efforts to engage in gender transition at school, unless the children consent to being informed by their parents,” the court said. “Parents also challenge California’s requirement that schools use children’s preferred names and pronouns, regardless of their parents’ wishes.”

The judge’s injunction “does not provide relief to all parents of California public school students, but only to parents who oppose the challenged policies or seek religious exemptions,” the justices added.

The six conservatives were in the majority, while the three liberals dissented.

Religious freedom advocates welcomed the decision.

“The fundamental right of parents to raise their children in their faith does not stop at the school gate,” said Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Religious Liberty Fund. “California has attempted to exclude parents from their children’s lives while forcing teachers to hide school behavior from parents. We are pleased that the Court has intervened to block this anti-family, anti-American policy.”

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had stayed a ruling in late December by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, who ruled that student privacy rules enforced by California school officials were unconstitutional.

“Parents and guardians have a federal constitutional right to be informed if their child studying in a public school expresses gender incongruence,” Benitez wrote. “Teachers and school staff have a federal constitutional right to accurately notify their student’s parent or guardian when their student expresses gender incongruence.”

Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, Escondido public school teachers who described themselves as “devout Catholics,” were sued in 2023, and they were later joined by parents from Pasadena and Clovis.

The Supreme Court’s decision only concerns parents.

The parents who filed the complaint “have sincerely held religious beliefs regarding sex and gender, and they feel obligated to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs,” the court said.

The court added: “Gender dysphoria is a condition that significantly impacts a child’s mental health, but when a child exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria at school, California’s policies hide this information from parents and facilitate a certain degree of gender transition during school hours. »

“This is a watershed moment for parental rights in America,” said Paul M. Jonna, special advisor to the Thomas More Society. “The Supreme Court has unequivocally told California and every state across the country: You cannot secretly transition a child behind a parent’s back.”

The 9th Circuit agreed with state lawyers who said the judge misstated California law.

“The State does not categorically prohibit the disclosure of information about students’ gender identity to parents without the student’s consent,” they said in a 3-0 decision.

“For example, the California Attorney General’s guidance specifically states that schools may ‘permit disclosure when a student fails to provide consent when there is a compelling need to do so to protect the welfare of the student,’ and the California Education Code permits disclosure to avoid obvious danger to the welfare of a child.

In the parents’ rights appeal to the Supreme Court, lawyers said school employees secretly encouraged gender transitions.

“California requires public schools to conceal the expressed transgender status of children at school from their own parents – including religious parents – and actively facilitate these children’s social transitions over their parents’ express objection,” they told the court.

“California’s system of parental deception currently keeps families in the dark and causes irreparable harm. That is why we are asking the United States Supreme Court to intervene immediately,” Jonna wrote in her appeal. “Every day these gender secrecy policies remain in effect, children suffer and parents are left in the dark. »

California state prosecutors urged the court to stay the case while it is appealed.

They said the judge’s order “appears to categorically prohibit schools statewide from respecting a student’s desire for privacy regarding their gender identity or expression — or respecting a student’s request to be addressed by a particular name or pronoun — over a parent’s objection.”

They said the order “would not allow any exceptions, even in extreme cases where students or teachers reasonably fear that the student will be physically or mentally abused.”