Judge Rules MOCO Schools Student Gender Guidelines Do Not Violate Parents' Rights

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by parents who opposed Montgomery County Public Schools’ new guidelines that forbid the school district from disclosing a student’s gender identity to their parents unless the student approves.

In his opinion issued last Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Grimm said the school district’s “guidelines carefully balance the interests of both the parents and students, encouraging parental input when the student consents, but avoiding it when the student expresses concern that parents would not be supportive, or that disclosing their gender identity to their parents may put them in harm’s way.”

In a statement, MCPS said the judge correctly found the guidelines align with the commitment of the school district and the county school board to nondiscrimination and protecting students’ safety and privacy, Bethesda Beat reported.

Three parents filed a lawsuit against the Montgomery County Board of Education over the school district's "2020–2021 Guidelines for Student Gender Identity." The parents argued that the school district’s guidelines violate the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The parents objected to the guidance that said staff members should not disclose to parents the gender a student chooses to identify as at school unless the student approves.

The parents said that the guidelines were designed to work around parental involvement “in a pivotal decision” in their children’s lives and that the guidelines enable school personnel to allow children “to transition socially to a different gender identity at school” without parents’ notice or consent.

Frederick Claybrook Jr., an attorney representing the parents, has advised his clients to appeal the decision, according to The Washington Post.

“They are the ones that are to give guidance to their children and to help them through this very important step,” Claybrook said. “Not necessarily to the exclusion of schools, but schools can’t do that to the exclusion of parents, either.”

In his ruling, Grimm stated that the guidelines cannot fairly be read to adopt a policy of excluding parents, because it actively encourages family involvement during the transition whenever possible, but only to the point that it does not jeopardize a student’s well-being, according to WTOP.

Grimm wrote that parents do not have a “fundamental right” to be informed “of their child’s gender identity, when it differs from that usually associated with their sex assigned at birth, regardless of their child’s wishes or any concerns regarding the detrimental effect the disclosure may have on that child.”