California public schools can no longer deceive parents or force teachers to keep parents in the dark about their child’s gender confusion, after a federal court declared the practice to be unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez has issued a permanent injunction against what he called “parental exclusion policies,” which required teachers to withhold information about a student’s gender expression unless the child consented.
The decision came in Mirabelli, et al. v. Olson, et al., a class-action lawsuit brought by parents and teachers represented by the Thomas More Society.
“Today’s incredible victory finally, and permanently, ends California’s dangerous and unconstitutional regime of gender secrecy policies in schools. The Court’s comprehensive ruling—granting summary judgment on all claims—protects all California parents, students, and teachers, and it restores sanity and common sense,” said Paul Jonna of the Thomas More Society.
As CBN News first reported in 2024, two teachers, Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori West, have been fighting a legal battle for their jobs after they were initially placed on administrative leave for refusing to withhold information about students’ gender “transitions” from their parents.
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The ruling by Judge Benitez states that California’s parental exclusion policies “harm the parents by depriving them of the long-recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to care, guide, and make health care decisions for their children, and by substantially burdening many parents’ First Amendment right to train their children in their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
It also found that teachers were “compelled to violate their sincerely held beliefs and the parents’ rights by forcing them to conceal information they feel is critical for the welfare of their students.”
Benitez also criticized state officials, writing, “California’s education policymakers … misperceive federal constitutional rights belonging to parents as weak-kneed and frail and subservient to the student’s right to privacy. Yet, under federal constitutional law, ‘parents retain a substantial, if not the dominant, role.'”
The judge noted that the policies treated parents as “harassers from whom students need to be protected,” and concluded that “government speech that employs purposeful deception may not be forced upon teachers or parents.”
The grassroots group Defending Education has discovered that similar secrecy policies exist in at least 1,215 school districts across 37 states, affecting more than 21,000 schools and 12 million students.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is fighting the ruling, telling KATV, “We believe that the district court misapplied the law and that the decision will ultimately be reversed on appeal.”
But Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver weighed in on the case, saying, “Public schools have no business keeping harmful secrets from parents. Requiring teachers to be dishonest with parents in the course of their job was an unconscionable decision by California school officials. Moreover, parents have the right to direct the upbringing of their children. Gender secrecy policies put teachers and parents at odds when they should be united toward a child’s well-being. All parental exclusion policies should be eliminated nationwide.”
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Greg Burt of the California Family Council agreed, “The state told schools they had to keep secrets from moms and dads, and that was never true. A federal judge has now made it unmistakably clear: children do not belong to the government, parents have the right to know what’s happening with their own kids, and teachers should never be forced to lie or stay silent to keep their jobs.”
And CBN News reported that Judge Benitez had issued a forceful statement in his preliminary ruling in 2024, declaring that the school’s gender secrecy policy undermines constitutional rights, calling it a “trifecta of harm” against children, parents, and teachers.
“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 explained. “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.”
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