In a case that could reach the Supreme Court, a federal appeals court sided with a Massachusetts school that secretly facilitated a child’s social transition at school from female to male without parental consent.

The case, Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, was dismissed in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month after the court ruled that “parental rights are not unlimited.”

The case concerns Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, whose daughter attended Baird Middle School in Ludlow, Massachusetts. In 2020, “unsolicited LGBTQ-themed video suggestions” appeared on the unnamed student’s school Google account on a school-issued computer, according to the background summary of the first district ruling. The student started questioning her gender identity.

The 11-year-old indicated to a teacher that she was “depressed and struggling with insecurity, low self-esteem, poor self-image, and a perceived lack of popularity.”

Originally, the school informed Silvestri of the situation, to which Silvestri responded in an email message that she appreciated the concern and informed them that “her father and I will be getting her the professional help she needs at this time.” She also requested that the school refrain from conducting “any private conversations with [the Student] in regards to this matter. Please allow us to address this as a family and with the proper professionals.”

However, after the student informed her school counselor that she was “genderqueer,” the school’s teachers and staff began calling her by differing pronouns and a new name the student asked to be called. The counselor instructed the staff and teachers to switch to the child’s given name and biological pronouns when speaking with the parents. The counselor permitted her to use bathrooms inconsistent with her biological sex. Another staff member met with the student to give her LGBTQ resources and speak to her about gender identity.

After Foote and Silvestri discovered the school’s actions, they filed suit against the school based on the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. 

However, a U.S. district court dismissed the case. The case went to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals after Foote and Silvestri appealed the ruling, where that court dismissed the case as well.

The 1st Circuit ruling acknowledged the “fundamental importance of the rights asserted by the Parents to be informed of, and to direct, significant aspects of their child’s life—including their socialization, education, and health.” Yet, the document then stated that the “Protocol of nondisclosure as to a student’s at-school gender expression without the student’s consent does not restrict parental rights in a way courts have recognized as a violation of the guarantees of substantive due process.”

The decision, citing the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Guidance as reference, defended the school’s choice, stating, “When a student consistently asserts a particular gender identity, the DESE Guidance recommends that the school accept that student’s stated gender.”

Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for education studies, understands that the definition of education is warped in many institutions.

“Not wanting your child to be told they could have been born in the wrong body is not a ‘preferred education experience,’ and it is not at all unreasonable,” Kilgannon told The Washington Stand. “Parents are the primary educators of their children. We should be very concerned that a court can find a way to rule otherwise.”

Kilgannon recognizes that LBGTQ ideology is influencing court judgements.

“Left-wing and LGBTQ+ legal nonprofits have made a concerted effort to educate lawyers and judges about their warped and dangerous theories of the human person and the law,” she said. “Conservative and religious liberty legal groups need to make exponentially larger investments in these kinds of trainings to defend the family and the dignity of the human person. If we do not, we will get more of the same. Our children are too precious to suffer the consequences of our failure to act.”

Nearly 1,200 U.S. school districts prohibit school staff and faculty from informing parents about students’ social gender transition, according to a report by Parents Defending Education. Over 12.3 million children attend school in these districts, which contain 21,193 schools. 

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