A California federal court issued a preliminary injunction Thursday against a school district's policy that prevents teachers from discussing a student's gender identity with their parents.
Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, who teach at Rincon Middle School in Escondido, California, about 30 miles north of San Diego, filed the lawsuit in April at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. They claimed the school district's policies are unconstitutional.
In issuing the preliminary injunction, Judge Robert Benitez, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled the district's policy is a "trifecta of harm."
"It harms the child who needs parental guidance and possibly mental health intervention to determine if the incongruence is organic or whether it is the result of bullying, peer pressure, or a fleeting impulse," Benitez wrote. "It harms the parents by depriving them of the long recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to care, guide, and make health care decisions for their children.
"And finally, it harms plaintiffs who are compelled to violate the parent's rights by forcing plaintiffs to conceal information they feel is critical for the welfare of their students — violating plaintiffs' religious beliefs."
Benitez ruled the school district adopted a policy without parental input that places a communication barrier between parents and teachers. He wrote some parents who disagree with the policy can afford to send their children to a private school, but parents in middle or lower socioeconomic situations don't have that option.
"For these parents, the new policy appears to undermine their own constitutional rights while it conflicts with knowledgeable medical opinion," Benitez wrote. "An order enjoining the new district policy is in the better interests of the entire community, as well as the plaintiff teachers."
The teachers were represented by the Thomas More Society, a conservative legal group.
"This is an untenable situation to put teachers in," attorney Paul M. Jonna of the Thomas More Society said in a news release. "Traditionally, educators have been viewed as highly significant players in a child's development, partnering with parents — not supplanting them — in the incredibly important responsibility of raising children.
"The State of California and the Escondido Union School District have created an unconscionable scenario where it pits these two key influencers in a child's life against one another by putting up an intentional curtain of dishonesty between them."
In an email to Newsmax, a school district official said, "Our leadership team is currently reviewing the decision."