A public school district in Pennsylvania is being sued for secretly facilitating gender transition for students without parental knowledge or consent.
The lawsuit, filed Friday by America First Legal on behalf of a parent in the Pine-Richland School District, challenges the district’s policies against notifying parents about when and if a child is expressing a gender identity at school that does not match the person’s biological sex.
“As if we are living in a dystopian novel, schools across the country are now enacting policies to facilitate the genital mutilation and chemical castration of children without any parental input,” Nicholas Barry, a senior litigation counsel for AFL, said in a press release. “These schools can’t give a child an Advil without parental consent because fit parents have the right to direct the care and upbringing of their children without interference from the government. But these same schools will socially transition a child without any parental input.”
The school district employs the use of a “gender transition team” that includes government officials and doctors who are charged with curating plans to help young children transition in school.
Policies last revised in 2019 state that “all students have a right to privacy and this right includes the right to keep one’s transgender status private at school.”
The school district stresses throughout its policies that it will not disclose any information to parents except in certain narrow circumstances, such as children giving consent or by legal requirement.
To address transgender claims from children, the school district also conducts a “secret psychological evaluation” of students as young as five years old, according to the lawsuit. The “gender transition team,” which the district calls a student support team, will then draft a “timeline for the transition in order to create the conditions supporting a safe and accepting environment at the school.”
District policy also requires that the school allow children to use restrooms and other facilities not aligned with their biological sex. In addition, school faculty and other officials are instructed to address children who say they are transgender with a “preferred pronoun” and alternative name.
“A court-ordered name or gender change is not required, and the student need not change his or her official records,” the district policy states.
AFL says this policy allows the school to conceal from parents whether their children have a different identity in the classroom.
“This effectively requires school personnel, at the request of a student, to use certain pronouns or names with the student at school, but a separate name and pronoun with parents at school or in correspondence sent home,” the lawsuit reads.
The plaintiff in AFL’s lawsuit, pseudonymously named Jane Doe, sent a notice to the school district that it be required to notify her of any transgender-related changes that develop with her child. After meeting with the school principal, she was told that “under no circumstances would the School District notify her if it becomes aware that her child has requested to be addressed by different pronouns, a different name, or other exhibited behavior consistent with gender dysphoria or a desire to transition to a gender other than her biological gender,” according to the lawsuit.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“A parent’s decision-making authority about what is in their child’s best interest cannot be transferred to some agent of the government simply because a child or the government disagrees with the parent’s lawful decision,” Barry said. “That is tyranny. AFL will continue to fight for parental rights against this governmental tyranny.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to PRSD for comment.
