Judge allows parents' lawsuit against school district over policy allowing kids to identify as opposite sex
A judge overseeing a case involving two sets of Wisconsin parents who filed a lawsuit challenging their school district's policy that allows children to adopt new gender identities without their parents' knowledge or consent denied the district's motion for dismissal, ruling that the parents had a right to bring the suit.
Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Michael P. Maxwell denied the Kettle Moraine School District's motion to dismiss the lawsuit on June 1, stating that the parents' complaint "demonstrates a potential violation of their rights as parents to direct the upbringing of their child and is sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss."
The parents filed the lawsuit last November with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. The set of parents known as T.F. and B.F. claim that they learned in December 2020 that their 12-year-old daughter was struggling with her gender identity. After going through counseling, the daughter informed her parents and the school that she wanted to be addressed by a male name with male pronouns.
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Parents T.F. and B.F. said they requested that the school's staff not comply with their daughter's request but they refused, citing a district policy that says teachers don't need parental consent to refer to students by a different name or pronoun. Within a few weeks of removing their daughter from school, her attitude changed, and she told her parents that the "affirmative care" she had received that encouraged her to identify as the opposite sex "really messed her up."
The school district claimed in its motion that the parents, T.F. and B.F., could not sue them because they had removed their daughter from school and had placed her in another district. However, the judge ruled that the parents removing their daughter is not relevant to the alleged harm that resulted from the school's policy.
"Wisconsin courts recognize that parents have a right to make 'decisions regarding the education and upbringing of their children,' 'free from government intervention,'" the judge's order reads.
"T.F. and B.F. allege that Kettle Moraine violated their right to make decisions regarding the upbringing of their daughter when they were told by Kettle Moraine that the school would not honor the parents' request to not refer to their daughter by a male name or pronouns."
"This allegation, viewed in the light most favorable to T.F. and B.F., demonstrates a potential violation of their rights as parents to direct the upbringing of their child and is sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss on the issue of standing," he continued.
Another set of parents, P.W. and S.W., who have two children in the Kettle Moraine School District, joined the lawsuit, fearing that the district's policy could impact their children. The district claimed in its motion that the policy doesn't apply to P.W. and S.W.'s children, who are not struggling with their gender identities, but Maxwell disagreed.
According to the judge, P.W. and S.W. are only seeking a "declaratory judgment" that the school district violated their parental rights.
"P.W. and S.W. need not wait for potential harm from Kettle Moraine's policy to occur for their children before they are entitled to seek declaratory relief on whether the policy violates their parental rights," he wrote.
"P.W. and S.W.['s] allegation of an infringement on their fundamental right to parent their children is a risk of substantial injury to their interests and is sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss."
The case will proceed to trial unless a settlement is reached before then.
"Parents' rights to direct the upbringing, education and mental health treatment of their children is one of the most basic constitutional rights every parent holds dear, yet we are seeing more and more school districts across the country not only ignoring parents' concerns but actively working against them," Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Roger Brooks wrote in a June 1 press release.
"For that reason, we are pleased that the court rejected the school district's request to throw out this case and instead recognized that the argument of our clients' demonstrates a potential violation of their rights as parents to direct the upbringing of their child."
"Kettle Moraine should take this opportunity to change its policy, which violates the constitutionally protected rights of parents and isn't in the best interest of children. As the court wrote, 'Wisconsin courts recognize that parents have a right to make 'decisions regarding the education and upbringing of their children,' 'free from government intervention,'" he continued.
This case isn't the first time parents have sued a school district for allegedly encouraging children to adopt new gender identities without their parents' knowledge or consent.
In April, a pair of parents in the Ludlow Public School District in Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against school officials at Baird Middle School in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts Springfield Division.
One set of parents claims they requested that the school refrain from discussing the issue of gender identity with their children and allow them to "direct the mental health care of their children."
The parents, Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri had learned from a teacher that their 11-year-old daughter was claiming she was "genderqueer" and her new pronouns were "he/him." They assert that they made it clear to the school they would provide their daughter with the help she needed from a "mental health professional," but they believe the school disregarded their instructions.
Foote and Silvestri said their daughter changed her preferred name twice since December 2020 without their knowledge and that the school continued to address her by "whatever iteration of her name she has indicated she prefers" despite their request not to do so.
The lawsuit also accused the school of having a "protocol and practice of concealing from parents information related to their children's gender identity."
