Challenge to California Policy Limiting Teachers’ Disclosure to Parents of Student’s Changed Gender Identity …
From Mirabelli v. Olson, decided today by Judge Roger Benitez (S.D. Cal.), the introduction and the conclusion:
Plaintiffs are teachers in the Escondido Union School District (“EUSD”) and parents of students in other California school districts…. The Plaintiffs contend that a state policy promulgated by the California Department of Education and adopted by local school districts violate their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments …. The gravamen of the state policy is that public school teachers are not to reveal to parents a student’s announced change of gender identity in order to maintain the student’s privacy, except where the student consents to disclosure….
It is still true that a request to change one’s own name and pronouns may be the first visible sign that a child or adolescent may be dealing with issues that could lead to gender dysphoria or related health issues. Yet, for teachers, communicating to a parent the social transition of a school student to a new gender—by using preferred pronouns or incongruent dress—is not generally permitted under EUSD’s and the State Defendants’ policies.
