Parents Defending Education sues Iowa school district for allegedly hiding ‘gender support plans’ from parents

Parents Defending Education, who are a grassroots advocacy moment, have filed a lawsuit against a school district in Iowa alleging that the district have allowed students to form “gender support plans” without either notifying parents or requesting their consent.

The lawsuit states that the students’ first amendment right to free speech has been violated with the districts “Transgender and Students Nonconforming to Gender Role Stereotypes” along with the parents’ fourteenth amendment rights.

The fourteenth amendment, as per the constitution, reads that “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.”  

The lawsuit goes onto say that policies implement by the Linn-Mar Community School District permit “children to make fundamentally important decisions about their gender identity without any parental involvement and to then hide these decisions from parents.”

The Daily Wire also reports that children over 12 are able to work with the school and form a “gender support plan,” as part of the districts “Transgender and Students Nonconforming to Gender Role Stereotypes.” The gender support plan states that “Any student in seventh grade or older will have priority of their support plan over their parent/guardian.”

The policy also reads: “The district shall not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status to others including but not limited to other students, parents, and school staff unless legally required to do so (such as national standardized testing, drivers permits, transcripts, etc.), or unless the student has authorized such disclosure.”

The lawsuit directly targets this policy in its text. “A child’s gender identity implicates the most fundamental issues concerning the child, including the child’s religion, medical care, mental health, sense of self, and more,” the lawsuit states. “Yet despite ‘extensive precedent’ that parents must be involved in decisions concerning these types of issues … school districts across the country are increasingly excluding parents from decision making when gender identity is involved.”