Yesterday, a federal district judge ruled that California’s gender secrecy policies in public schools violate the constitutional rights of both parents and teachers. In a landmark class action decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, the judge issued a permanent injunction blocking all public schools in California from enforcing “parental exclusion policies” that forced teachers to deceive or withhold information from parents about gender identity and their children.

In Mirabelli, et al. v. Olson, et al, a group of parents and teachers represented by Thomas More Society, challenged the secrecy policies arguing they infringed on their First Amendment Free Speech and Free Exercise of religion rights. The policies restrained public school teachers and staff from informing parents about unusual gender expression from their child unless the child consented.  The policies applied to children as young as two and as old as seventeen, stated the ruling.

The judge agreed with the parents and teachers by blocking the state attorney general and education superintendent from requiring state employees to mislead or lie to parents about their “child’s gender presentation at school.” The injunction also protects parents and teacher under several conditions, such as barring the required use of “preferred pronouns” by teachers who have religious objections or when parents object to their children’s gender expressions other than according to their biological sex.

The ruling noted that under California’s parental exclusion policies, the state took specific action to conceal child gender confusion from parents and required teachers to be the barrier to accurate communication regarding the well-being of children. 

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, who authored the ruling, stated that California policymakers “apparently do not trust parents to do the right thing for their child.” While state officials argued the policies are necessary to “prevent bullying and harassment,” Judge Benitez noted the policies treat parents like the “harassers from whom students need to be protected.”  

“California’s education policymakers may be experts on primary and secondary education but they would not receive top grades as students of Constitutional Law,” wrote Judge Benitez. “They misperceive federal constitutional rights belonging to parents as weak-kneed and frail and subservient to the student’s right to privacy. Yet, under federal constitutional law, ‘parents retain a substantial, if not the dominant, role.’” 

Judge Benitez noted that public school activities inside the schoolhouse gate are not beyond the reach of the First or Fourteenth Amendments. Quoting numerous U.S. Supreme Court precedents, the First Amendment gives parents the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children and gives teachers protection against being forced to conceal information or be compelled to deceive parents, wrote Judge Benitez. He also stated that the Fourteenth Amendment gives parents the substantive due process right to be informed about their child’s gender expressions.

“[Parental Exclusion Policies] harm the parents by depriving them of the long-recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to care, guide, and make health care decisions for their children, and by substantially burdening many parents’ First Amendment right to train their children in their sincerely held religious beliefs,” reads the opinion. “And finally, they harm teachers who are compelled to violate the [sic] sincerely held beliefs and the parent’s rights by forcing them to conceal information they feel is critical for the welfare of their students.” 

Government speech that employs “purposeful deception” may not be forced upon teachers or parents, concluded Judge Benitez.

According to Defending Education, a grassroots organization promoting non-political education in the public classroom, at least 1,215 U.S. school districts have adopted secrecy policies to keep parents in the dark regarding any change in their child’s gender-related behavior. The policies span across 37 states covering more than 21,000 schools with more than 12 million children enrolled. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Public schools have no business keeping harmful secrets from parents. Requiring teachers to be dishonest with parents in the course of their job was an unconscionable decision by California school officials. Moreover, parents have the right to direct the upbringing of their children. Gender secrecy policies put teachers and parents at odds when they should be united toward a child’s well-being. All parental exclusion policies should be eliminated nationwide.”