SAN DIEGO, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a class action over new anti-discrimination policies that stop teachers from revealing students’ gender identities without their permission will continue.
U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez denied multiple motions to dismiss the case by the Escondido Union School District, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and others. He found the plaintiffs had standing and sufficiently stated a claim.
“Parents’ rights to make decisions concerning the care, custody, control, and medical care of their children is one of the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests that Americans enjoy,” the George W. Bush appointee wrote.
Two teachers, Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, sued the school district in 2023 after it established a policy requiring teachers and school staff to accept a student’s expressed gender identity and them from revealing the student’s new gender identity to parents or guardians without students’ consent.
As devout Christians, both teachers sought exemptions from the school district allowing them to act in the best interests of their students as required by their religious convictions, including the ability to inform their parents. Their request was denied.
Since the initial lawsuit, the teachers have added parents of transgender students who claim they were harmed by the policy. They’ve also added state officials as defendants since the school district’s policy stems from rules adopted by the California Department of Education.
The plaintiffs seek an order and judgment declaring that the school’s policies violate the First and 14th Amendments and another order prohibiting enforcement of the policies.
A hearing for the motion to dismiss was held in early December.
In his 26-page order, the judge dismissed the defendants’ arguments that the plaintiff parents lacked standing because they did not claim an injury.
Benitez highlighted the Poe family, who have a child who attended public school in Fresno and identified as male, unbeknownst to their parents, even becoming the president of their school’s LGBTQ club. After their child attempted suicide, the Poes asked school staff on multiple occasions if their child was being called by a different name, and the school either lied to them or refused to answer.
The judge agreed that this, coupled with the plaintiffs’ continued fear of placing their other children in a public school system that withholds information about their children’s gender expression, constitutes an actual injury.
Benitez also rejected the defendants’ arguments that the plaintiff teachers lacked an injury. The teachers, he said, have had transgender students in the past and are likely to in the future, which will require them to deceive or mislead parents under this policy, in violation of their religious beliefs.
Overall, the judge concluded by acknowledging that although children have a right to be protected from discrimination, parents also have a right to have a right to know about their child’s gender expression at school. And, he states, when the two rights compete, the parents’ must win out.
“This court concludes that, in a collision of rights as between parents and child, the long-recognized federal constitutional rights of parents must eclipse the state rights of the child,” Benitez wrote.
The parties’ attorneys did not respond to requests for comment by press time.