Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review Lee v. Poudre School District R-1, a case where a group of religious parents have challenged a Colorado school district for disregarding parental rights and secretly guiding children into gender confusion. The district’s policies direct teachers and officials to hide critical information about children from their parents, such as participation in gender ideology indoctrination activities, gender identity, and preferred pronouns. Liberty Counsel’s brief asks the High Court to take up the case.

According to the parents’ petition, who are represented by America First Policy Institute, the district’s secrecy policies indoctrinated children with LGBTQ ideology, promoted attendance at the “Gender and Sexualities Alliance” (GSA) meetings after school, and hid this information from parents. At the GSA meetings, teachers and guest speakers encouraged discussion on gender identity to the point of handing out prizes for those who “came out” as gender confused. The petition notes that a teacher told one of the children that her parents may not be trustworthy and that school officials were the ones that could be trusted with gender conversations. Later, the child announced to her parents she had been attending these meetings and wanted to be a “boy.” The parents stated the secrecy policies “sowed distrust” in their relationship with their daughter which culminated in the daughter’s mental health decline to the point of a suicide attempt. The parents claimed the secrecy policies denied them the chance to guide their children away from the highly sexualized GSA meetings and to make informed decisions about their child’s mental health.

In April 2025, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed the parents’ claims. The courts ruled that the parents failed to show “a direct causal link” that the school district’s policies were “the moving force” behind their alleged injuries. The courts then denied the parents the chance to amend their lawsuit concluding that the parents had “failed to plausibly allege municipal liability.”

In the amicus brief, Liberty Counsel states that the Tenth Circuit “skirted the constitutional issue altogether” and failed to apply the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor upholding the right of parents to opt their children out of LGBTQ curriculum. 

“The secrecy policies maintained by Poudre School District R-1 intentionally divest parents of the opportunity to guide their children through these very consequential life questions based upon the tenets of their faith,” wrote Liberty Counsel. “In other words, it is not the role of public schools to supplant their judgment for that of parents.” 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “This Supreme Court has the chance to uphold the right of parents to direct the education and provide for the welfare of their children. The First Amendment simply does not allow government schools to secretly sow gender confusion among children and hide their actions from parents. Parents have a First Amendment right to guide their children in accordance with their religious beliefs.”