California public schools can no longer deceive parents or force teachers to keep parents in the dark about their child’s gender confusion, after a federal court declared the practice to be unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez has issued a permanent injunction against what he called “parental exclusion policies,” which required teachers to withhold information about a student’s gender expression unless the child consented.
The decision came in Mirabelli, et al. v. Olson, et al., a class-action lawsuit brought by parents and teachers represented by the Thomas More Society.
“Today’s incredible victory finally, and permanently, ends California’s dangerous and unconstitutional regime of gender secrecy policies in schools. The Court’s comprehensive ruling—granting summary judgment on all claims—protects all California parents, students and teachers, and it restores sanity and common sense,” said Paul Jonna of the Thomas More Society.
As CBN News first reported in 2024, two teachers, Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori West, have been fighting a legal battle for their jobs after they were initially placed on administrative leave for refusing to withhold information about students’ gender “transitions” from their parents.
The ruling by Judge Benitez states that California’s 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.”
It also found that teachers were “compelled to violate their sincerely held beliefs and the parents’ rights by forcing them to conceal information they feel is critical for the welfare of their students.”
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