A group of anonymous parents are suing the Madison Metropolitan School District over a transgender policy that encourages teachers and administrators to conceal from parents a child’s potential desire to transition genders. The case was to be heard before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on May 24, led by attorneys from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) with support from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
Doe v. Madison Metropolitan School District is “a critical parental rights case brought on behalf of a group of district parents,” WILL said in a statement.
In April 2018, the school district published a brand book explaining how teachers and administrators should manage a student’s desire to transition. Parental notification and involvement seems to play a minor role in the child’s wellbeing, according to district officials.
The subsection titled “Disclosure to Families” directs educators to follow the child’s instructions and utilize the child’s legal names, not the one’s of their chosen gender identity, when corresponding with parents, citing safety from guardians as the chief concern.
“Students identified as transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive may have not come out to their families regarding their gender identity. Disclosing a student’s personal information such as gender identity or sexual orientation can pose imminent safety risks, such as losing family support and housing.” the brand book states.
It also explains that if the student “insists on maintaining privacy from their family,” then the “student services staff shall discuss with the student contingency plans in the event that their privacy is compromised.”
This statement jibes with a growing trend of teachers and other educators boasting on TikTok, documented by the Twitter account LibsofTikTok, about how they’re using their position to indoctrinate students into an LGBTQ lifestyle. Sometimes they even film these videos on school property in their classrooms.
One middle school teacher in Owasso, Oklahoma, was fired in April for “complaints of grooming” and other “questionable content” after sharing on TikTok that he would be his students’ parent if any were rejected at home for identifying as LGBTQ.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is defending the case against ADF and WILL in court. The ACLU even tried to force the parents to give up their identities, asking the court to dismiss the case due to the use of pseudonyms for the parents, who feared that their children would “suffer social ostracism, harassment, economic injury, government retaliation, and even physical violence” if their names became public.
“The central question in this case is who can make major decisions for a child? WILL and ADF stand with parents who have a constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their child,” said WILL Deputy Counsel Luke Berg, who is will argue the case in court on behalf of the parents. “Schools have no authority to usurp this right, nor can they conspire to hide critical information from parents.”
ADF Senior Counsel Roger Brooks added: “Parents—not school boards—have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing, care and education of children. It is essential that teachers inform parents if their child struggles with any type of mental or physical condition at school so they can make the best, informed decisions to protect the child’s health and wellbeing. The Wisconsin Supreme Court must protect every parent’s right to parent.”
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