GOP states side with parents in lawsuit against school that ‘shut parents out’ of kids’ gender transition

Nineteen Republican state attorneys general are siding with parents in a lawsuit against a Massachusetts school district that encouraged their children’s gender transition and shut the parents out of the decision by claiming the parents weren’t support enough.

Led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, the AGs filed an amicus brief in the case against Ludlow Public School in Massachusetts brought by parents Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri. The couple says their school deliberately kept them in the dark about their children’s gender transition, secretly promoted ‘social transitioning” and actively subverted the parents’ requests for school personnel to stop.

The school also referred to their two children by new names and pronouns, the parents said.

A lower district court ruled against the parents, who then appealed to the First Circuit. GOP AGs from 19 states argued in their brief 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.”

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“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 brief explained that during the 2020-21 school year, Foote and Silvestri sent their children – B.F., an 11-year-old girl, and G.F., a 12-year-old boy – to Ludlow Public Schools.

“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…