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Attorneys general from 19 Republican-led states filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit against a Massachusetts school brought by parents of two children in the Ludlow Public School.
The parents, Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, allege that employees of the school deliberately kept them from knowing about their children’s gender transitions.
The couple’s daughter and son were 11 and 12 at the time. According to the lawsuit, the school district encouraged their children to transition and kept the parents in the dark “claiming the parents weren’t supportive enough.”
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is the lead on the case which alleges the school ignored the parents’ request to stop having private conversations with their children about gender identity.
While at school, the children were called new names and had different pronouns according to their parents.
The parents had to appeal their case to the First Circuit after a ruling against them in a lower court. The AGs led by Knudsen argued that the First Circuit “needs to respect parental rights.”
“When a student considers transitioning gender, parents have a fundamental, constitutional right to be involved in that decision-making process. Yet school districts across the country, strong-armed by ideologically driven advocacy groups, have shut parents out of the process and trampled on their fundamental rights,” the AG’s brief said. “This Court should therefore reverse or, at a minimum, remand for new analysis.”
“School districts can’t shut a parent out of their child’s decision about their gender identity because the child objects or because the school believes the parent isn’t supportive enough of an immediate gender transition,” the brief said.
The situation occurred during the 2020-21 school year. In the brief, the children are referred to as B.F. and G.F.
“In December 2020, they learned that B.F. talked with one of her teachers about depression, low self-esteem, and possible same-sex attraction. Silvestri emailed B.F.’s other teachers, informing them that they would be getting B.F. professional help and asking that no one ‘have any private conversations with B.[F.] in regards to this matter,’” the brief explained.
“But when B.F. emailed her teachers that she identified as ‘genderqueer’ two months later, a school counselor disregarded that request and met privately with B.F.,” according to the brief.
“After that meeting, the counselor emailed school staff and told them to conceal B.F.’s new name and pronouns from her parents,” the brief said.
“In these meetings, the librarian actively promoted gender experimentation. And earlier in the school year, he gave students in B.F.’s sixth grade class an assignment to make biographical videos, where he invited students to include their gender identity and preferred pronouns in their videos. He also encouraged B.F. to visit Translate Gender’s website,” the brief said.
While all of this was going on with their daughter, the couple learned that their son had also confided that he was having similar gender confusion.
The librarian who was affiliated with Translate Gender, an organization that offers resources about gender and gender identity, was having secret meetings with both of the Foote children.
According to the brief, the librarian “actively promoted gender experimentation.” The parents’ complaints were ignored with the school citing school policy as their defense.
The brief included a statement from the lower district court that ruled against the parents. The statement voices concern about school districts and employees actively hiding information from parents about “something of importance regarding their child.”
