A New Jersey school district says a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision protecting parental rights doesn’t apply to them. Moms for Liberty is taking them to court.
Moms for Liberty has filed a federal lawsuit against the School District of the Chathams Board of Education in New Jersey, challenging a district policy that allows school officials to keep a child’s gender transition secret from his or her parents.
Represented by Thomas More Society, Moms for Liberty is asking a federal court to declare the district’s Policy 5145.7 unconstitutional and stop its enforcement unless significant changes are made.
A Policy That Keeps Parents in the Dark
According to the lawsuit, the Chathams policy allows school counselors to withhold information about a student’s asserted gender transition from parents.
But it goes even further.
The lawsuit alleges that the policy permits students to adopt new names and pronouns at school without parental notice or consent; allows participation in sports, locker rooms, and changing facilities based on gender identity; and allows students to be referred to outside LGBTQ advocacy organizations without their parents’ knowledge.
The policy can also subject students to discipline for refusing to use another student’s chosen name or pronouns, raising serious concerns about students’ First Amendment rights.
“Parents are the primary educators and caregivers of their children, not school boards, not counselors, and not ideologues pushing secret gender transitions behind closed doors,” said Moms for Liberty CEO and Co-Founder Tina Descovich.
“Moms for Liberty will not stand by while schools hide life-altering decisions from parents or persuade children to affirm an ideology that violates their conscience and faith. We are proud to partner with the Thomas More Society to defend parental rights in New Jersey and across America.”
The Supreme Court Has Already Weighed In
The lawsuit comes after important recent victories for parental rights at the U.S. Supreme Court, including Mirabelli v. Bonta, won by the Thomas More Society earlier this year.
In Mirabelli v. Bonta, the Supreme Court blocked enforcement of California policies that allowed schools to conceal information about a child’s gender transition from parents. The Court concluded that the policies likely violated parents’ constitutional rights and criticized policies that “cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.”
“When Thomas More Society prevailed at the Supreme Court, we made a promise: any school board or district that kept hiding a child’s so-called ‘gender transition’ from parents, or that punished kids for refusing to bow down to an ideology they don’t believe, would be held accountable,” said Christopher Ferrara, Senior Counsel at Thomas More Society.
Yet according to the complaint, Chathams Board of Education President Ann Ciccarelli told the public during a June 15 board meeting that the Supreme Court’s Mirabelli decision was “not binding on public school districts in New Jersey.”
The district was given an opportunity to change its policy.
It didn’t.
So now we’re going to court.
Standing Up When School Districts Refuse to Listen
The mission of Moms for Liberty is to defend parental rights at all levels of government. That mission doesn’t stop at school board meetings or state capitols.
Across America, parents are asking for something that shouldn’t be controversial: transparency, accountability, and the right to direct the upbringing and education of their own children.
When those rights are respected, we’ll applaud it.
When they’re ignored, we’ll speak up.
And when necessary, we’ll fight for them in court.
