Supreme Court: California parents can be told about their transgender child at school

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court upheld a San Diego judge’s order Monday and said parents have a right to know their child’s gender at school.

The decision came in a 6-3 ruling granting an urgent appeal from attorneys for the Chicago-based Thomas More Society.

They said California’s student privacy policy violates parents’ rights and the free exercise of religion.

“The parents object that these policies prevent schools from telling them about their children’s attempts to change gender at school unless the children agree to the parents being informed,” said the court. “Parents also disagree with California’s requirement that schools use the names and pronouns of children’s choice regardless of what their parents say.”

The judge’s order “does not provide relief to all parents of California public school students, but only to those parents who reject the challenged policies or seek religious exemptions,” the judges added.

Six Conservatives were in the majority, while three Liberals were opposed.

Advocates of religious freedom praised the decision.

“The basic right of parents to raise their children according to their religion does not stop at the door of the school,” said Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “California tried to cut parents out of their children’s lives while forcing teachers to hide school behavior from parents.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a recent December ruling by US District Judge Roger Benitez, who said student privacy laws enforced by California school officials were unconstitutional.

“Parents and guardians have a constitutional right to be informed if their child attending a public school expresses gender nonconformity,” Benitez wrote. “Teachers and school personnel have a constitutional right to inform a student’s parent or guardian accurately when a student expresses a gender nonconformity.”

Escondido public school teachers Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, who described themselves as “devout Catholics,” were sued in 2023, and were later joined by parents in Pasadena and Clovis.

The decision of the Supreme Court refers only to parents.

The parents who brought the case “have sincere religious beliefs about gender and sexuality, and feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs,” the court said.

The court added: “Gender dysphoria is a condition that has a significant impact on a child’s mental health, but when a child shows signs of gender dysphoria at school, California policies hide that information from parents and facilitate gender reassignment during school.”

“This is an important time for parental rights in America,” said Paul M. Jonna, special counsel at the Thomas More Society. “The Supreme Court has told California and all states in no uncertain terms: you cannot secretly change a child behind a parent’s back.”

The 9th Circuit agreed with state attorneys who said the judge had misinterpreted California law.

“The state does not completely prohibit the disclosure of information about students’ gender to parents without the students’ consent,” they said in the 3-0 decision.

“For example, guidance from the California Attorney General clearly states that schools ‘may allow disclosure where the student does not consent when there is a compelling need to do so to protect the welfare of the student,’ and the California Education Code allows disclosure to avoid a clear risk to the child’s welfare.”

In a parental rights appeal to the Supreme Court, lawyers say school staff are secretly advocating gender reassignment.

“California requires public schools to conceal the transgender status of children who have been identified as transgender at school from their parents – including religious parents – and actively participate in the transition of those children to society over their parents’ objections,” they told the court.

“Right now, California’s parenting system is keeping families in the dark and causing irreparable harm. That’s why we’re asking the US Supreme Court to intervene immediately,” Jonna wrote in her complaint. “Every day these gender-bending policies continue to operate, children suffer and parents are left in the dark.”

Attorneys for the state of California asked the court to stay the case pending an appeal.

They said the judge’s order “seems to prevent schools across the State from honoring a student’s desire for privacy about gender or expression – or honoring a student’s request to be referred to by a specific name or pronoun – over a parent’s objection.”

They said the order “will not allow exceptions, even in extreme cases where students or teachers fear that the student will be physically or mentally abused.”