Granting a motion for a preliminary injunction, a U.S. district court ordered a California school district to stop forcing fifth-graders to promote LGBTQ content to kindergarteners without the opportunity to opt out. Under the motion, the district must also provide parental notification if the program’s activities include such content.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of California granted the motion after law firms First Liberty Institute and National Center for Law & Policy filed a complaint on behalf of two families in September 2024. The two families’ sons attended La Costa Heights Elementary, where the fifth-grade students mentor kindergarteners through a “buddy” program.

During one of the “buddy” activities, which occurred in May 2024, the students’ teacher read to the fifth-graders My Shadow is Pink, a children’s book about a boy with a pink shadow who wears a dress to school. The teacher then directed the students to watch the book’s read-aloud film with the kindergarteners. According to the complaint, the teacher had never read any of the mentorship books the program used before the students used them. Afterward, the fifth-graders were required to chalk the shadow of the kindergartener in their buddy’s chosen color and gender. The teacher also did not inform parents about the book and activity in his weekly newsletter.

The two children of the parents who would later file suit were deeply upset by being used to advocate for an ideology against their Christian and Catholic belief and told their parents.

The families requested permission to opt out in a school board meeting in which other families concerned about the book attended. After the school board denied the request, the two families filed suit against the Encinitas (CA) Union School District on the grounds of First and 14th Amendment violations.

On May 12, the district granted a motion for a preliminary injunction, in which it stated that “[c]ompelling individuals to mouth support for views they find objectionable violates the First Amendment.”

Nate Kellum, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, applauded the ruling in a press release.

“No child should be forced to speak a message that violates his religious convictions,” Kellum said. “We are grateful for the court’s decision and will continue to fight to ensure that elementary children are not forced to participate in lessons about gender identity that violate their faith.”

In March, First Liberty filed an amicus brief in the similar case Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which a Maryland School district has refused to notify parents or let them opt their elementary-age children out of LGBTQ curricula. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling this summer.

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