Teachers from a California middle school sued their school district and the state education board on Thursday over policies that they say require them to hide students’ intentions to change genders from their parents.
The federal lawsuit filed by attorneys from the Thomas More Society alleges that administrators at the Escondido Union School District and California State Board of Education violated the First Amendment with a policy that would compel teachers to aid in a student’s transgender “social transition.” The litigation was prompted by Escondido’s implementation of a series of new policies on the treatment of “transgender” or “gender diverse” students.
Plaintiffs Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, who are devoutly Catholic and Christian, also allege that the district’s policies infringe on their religious freedom, Paul Jonna, a lawyer representing the pair, said in a prepared statement.
National Review has reached out to the school district and the education board for comment.
Under the policies, teachers must refer to students by their preferred pronouns or gender-specific names during school hours but revert to biological pronouns and legal names when speaking with parents, the complaint states. At Escondido, once a teacher learns of a child’s social transitioning, he or she has an obligation to ensure parents do not discover this, according to the lawsuit.
news.yahoo.com/california-teachers-sue-school-district-183648480.html