Insurance Pays Middletown's Legal Fees In Transgender Battle With NJ

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — The state of New Jersey has not dropped its lawsuit against Middletown and two neighboring school districts (Marlboro, Manalapan) for changes those school boards made last year to 5756, the state's transgender student policy.

And the top criticism from foes of the Middletown school board is that the district is incurring thousands of dollars in legal fees at taxpayers' expense.

But at Tuesday night's school board meeting, Board vice president Jacqueline Tobacco announced Middletown's legal bills are covered by the district's insurance carrier.

"I wanted to confirm for the community that our insurance coverage will be covering legal costs for the litigation Attorney General Platkin brought against the district," said Tobacco this week after the meeting.

Three districts — Middletown, Marlboro and Manalapan-Englishtown — were sued by New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin last June. Middletown's policy requires teachers tell parents their son or daughter is transgender only if the child requests a public transgender accommodation, such as using a new name on homework and exams, or playing on a different sports team.

Platkin, a Gov. Murphy-appointee, said the three districts — all in Republican-majority towns — put the safety of transgender students at risk by "outing" the minors to their parents.

Tobacco helped write Middletown's policy; she has long defended it.

"We amended the non-mandatory policy 5756 to include a student-led collaborative approach to parental notification of a public social gender transition in school," she said this week.

The plot thickened last September: Lawyers for the Attorney General made the stunning admission in court that the NJ Department of Education's transgender student Policy 5756 was not even mandatory to begin with. School boards in Middletown, Holmdel and Marlboro said a third-party vendor they hired, Strauss Esmay, told them NJ's transgender student policy was mandatory, which was not accurate. NJ School Boards: Strauss Esmay Gave Us Wrong Info. On Trans Policy (Sept. 2023)

So what's the latest as of January on the state's lawsuit against Middletown?

A Superior Court judge issued an injunction last August, so Middletown and the other districts are prevented from implementing their transgender policies. Middletown appealed the injunction last summer.

The state's case against Middletown was supposed to go before an administrative law judge. It was rumored that hearing would be this January, but so far Middletown has not heard anything from the state as to when the hearing will be, said Tobacco.

The lawyer retained by the Middletown school board is Bruce Padula, of Matawan-based law firm Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri & Jacobs. How much so far has Middletown school district paid Padula and his law firm to fight the state?

It's less than $15,000, said Tobacco this week.

"When we reach the deductible ($15K), we will submit a claim for litigation as in any other case brought against the district," said Tobacco.

NJ Sues Middletown, 2 Other Districts For Transgender Student Policies (June 2023)

Just days after the state sued Middletown, Marlboro and Manalapan, the Colts Neck Board of Education held off on passing a similar transgender policy for fear of being sued by the state: Colts Neck School Board Tables Vote On Trans Student Policy (June 2023)

From the New Jersey Globe, here is a copy of the NJ Attorney General's lawsuit against Middletown.