A Pennsylvania court ruled that parents’ constitutional rights were violated when a first grade teacher read transgender books to students, telling them, “When children are born, parents make a guess whether they’re a boy or a girl. Sometimes parents are wrong.”
Three parents filed a lawsuit against the Mt. Lebanon School District, Jefferson Elementary first-grade teacher Megan Williams, and several district and school officials for instructing their children about transgender topics.
The parents alleged that teaching six-year-olds that they can change from one sex to the other violated their constitutional right to religious freedom and their “constitutionally protected liberty interest in the care, custody, and control of their children, including their education.”
David Berardinelli, an attorney in Alliance Defending Freedom’s Attorney Network, from the law firm DeForest Koscelnik & Berardinelli, brought the complaint on behalf of the parents.
In her decision in favor of the parents, Senior U.S. District Judge Joy Conti explained key points in the case:
A first-grade teacher, without providing notice or opt outs, decided to observe Transgender Awareness Day by reading noncurricular books and presenting noncurricular gender identity topics to her students.
During that classroom presentation, the teacher told her students “parents make a guess about their children’s – when children are born, parents make a guess whether they’re a boy or a girl. Sometimes parents are wrong.”
Williams read two books to her first graders: When Aidan Became a Brother, by transgender-identified Kyle Lukoff, and Introducing Teddy: A gentle story about gender and friendship, by queer-identified Jessica Walton.
The first story begins, “When Aidan was born, everyone thought he was a girl.” But the young girl soon explains to everyone that she’s really a boy, and her parents obligingly let her choose a new name and dress like a girl. Her mom and dad eventually admit:
When you were born, we didn’t know you were going to be our son. We made some mistakes, but you helped us fix them.
Aidan’s parents won’t make that mistake with their second child! They tell Aidan and others that they’re having a baby, whom they won’t identify as a boy or a girl. They also assure Aidan, “This baby is lucky to have you” as a big brother.
The second book is about a teddy bear named Thomas who tells his young owner, Errol:
I need to be myself, Errol. In my heart, I’ve always known that I’m a girl teddy, not a boy teddy. I wish my name was Tilly, not Thomas.
Errol, of course, accepts his bear’s sex change, and everything is hunky-dory at the playground.
According to the court, later that week, Williams began telling the six-year-olds that her son, known to some students through youth sports, was now a “she.”
The children were, quite understandably, confused.
Carmela Tatel and her husband, plaintiffs in the case, were asked by their daughter, “How do you know that I am a girl?”
The Tatels told the young girl the truth about people being either male or female, but Carmela “testified that she was not ready to have such a discussion with her child and Williams’ instruction forced her to have it.”
But their daughter was still confused, asking, “Why would her teacher tell her something wrong?”
The court noted that this confusion would be natural for young children, saying, “Young students respect their teacher as a role model and would trust that her messages were endorsed by the school.”
Other parents expressed similar frustration over a first grade teacher usurping their parental authority by teaching children about sexuality and identity before they are able to understand such concepts.
Judge Conti made a strong statement asserting that parents have the primary role of shaping a child’s identity – not teachers:
A teacher instructing first-graders and reading books to show that their parents’ beliefs about their children’s gender identity may be wrong directly repudiates parental authority. Williams’ conduct struck at the heart of Plaintiffs’ own families and their relationship with their own young children.
She concluded with this declaration:
Absent a compelling governmental interest, parents have a constitutional right to reasonable and realistic advance notice and the ability to opt their elementary-age children out of noncurricular instruction on transgender topics and to not have requirements for notice and opting out for those topics that are more stringent than those for other sensitive topics.
The case is Tatel v. Mt. Lebanon School.
Related articles and resources:
Equipping Parents For Back-To-School is a free, updated resource that equips and empowers parents as they navigate serious issues in the education system.
Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources
Illinois School District to Teach Preschoolers About ‘Sexual Orientation’ and ‘Gender Identity’
National Day of Reading Celebrates ‘Stories Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Youth’
New Jersey to Require 1st Graders to Learn About Gender Identity Starting This Fall
Talking to Your Children About Transgender Issues
Virginia School District Ignore Parents Opposition, Implements ‘Gender Identity’ Lessons
When Transgender Issues Enter Your World
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