NJ Schools’ Transgender Policies Prompt Federal Suit From Parents

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — A group of activist parents is taking a Morris County school district to federal court over its transgender policies.

Moms For Liberty, a nationwide organization that stands against school curricula that teach about LGBTQ+ rights, race and ethnicity, critical race theory, and discrimination, is suing the School District of the Chathams on behalf of two parents of students.

The group is suing the school district over its transgender student privacy policies, specifically Policy 5145.7, which reads that a counselor can use their judgment to notify the parents of a student who wants to express a different gender than what was assigned at birth.

“If the student’s parent/guardian is not aware of the request (to be recognized as another gender), the school counselor will assess whether, and to what extent, parents/guardians can be involved,” the policy reads.

Moms of Liberty describes the parents it represents as “practicing Christians who sincerely believe that God created only two genders, male and female,” who also believe it is “morally wrong to deny one’s God-given status as male or female and purport to be the opposite gender.”

The suit says the district’s parental notification policy with regard to transgender students allows the school counselor to facilitate a student's "social transition" while concealing it from parents. It argues that affirming a student’s beliefs of transgenderism, without allowing parents to intervene, “can do enormous harm to impressionable and suggestible children.”

Moms of Liberty also argues that Policy 5145.7’s harassment, intimidation, and bullying clause, with regard to pronouns specifically, violates students’ First Amendment rights.

Specifically, the group claims that “forcing” students to use self-chosen pronouns, under the threat of discipline, violates the First Amendment’s free speech clause.

“This aspect of Policy 5145.7 compels students… And their parents, to engage in falsehood that contradicts their religious faith by conforming their speech to the District’s fanciful ideology of ‘gender identity,’” the suit reads. “The District thus violates the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment, threatening punishments based on the viewpoint and content of speech that departs from the official narrative on gender.”

The suit cites the California court case Mirabelli v. Bonta, decided in March, which declared similar transgender privacy policies unconstitutional for parents.

Moms of Liberty quotes the district’s School Board President, Ann Ciccarelli, who said during the BOE’s June 15 meeting, “The United States Supreme Court decision Mirabelli is not… binding on public school districts in New Jersey.”

According to the suit, the policy and the Board’s decision not to recognize Mirabelli is “open defiance of the law of the land.”

The suit names the full BOE and Superintendent Emily Sortino and seeks nominal damages and attorneys’ fees.

Patch has reached out to members of the School District of the Chathams’ Board of Education, who were not immediately available for comment.