On Thursday, a federal lawsuit was filed in California by two middle school teachers who allege that their schools ordered them to lie to parents about their childrens’ gender identity while at school.
As reported by Fox News, the teachers are Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, who both taught at Rincon Middle School in Escondido, California, for decades. In the lawsuit filed against the school, Escondido Union School District (EUSD) administrators, and the California State Board of Education, the women claim that the school’s policies on “gender diverse” students forced them to go along with any child’s given “gender identity” while at school, without informing the parents.
Among other requirements, they and other teachers were mandated to refer to students by their “preferred pronouns” while in the classroom, but to revert to their correct pronouns whenever parents were nearby. If they ever encountered a “suspicious parent,” the teachers were forced to lie to them by claiming they were only allowed to discuss “information regarding the student’s behavior as it relates to school, class rules, assignments, etc..”
The lawsuit includes a transcript of a presentation given by EUSD staff on February 3rd about the “rights of gender diverse students,” ordering all teachers to “accept the student’s assertion of their gender identity and begin to treat the student immediately, consistently with that gender identity.”
“The student’s assertion is enough,” the school-sanctioned presentation declares. “There is no need for a formal declaration. There’s no requirement for parent or caretaker agreement or even for knowledge for us to begin treating that student consistent with their gender identity.”
Teachers, the transcript added, were not allowed to reveal “a student’s transgender status or gender diverse status to individuals who do not have a legitimate need for the information,” including “parents or caretakers.”
Paul Jonna, special counsel with the Thomas More Society and one of the lawyers representing the two teachers, said that “all of this is to be done without parent or guardian agreement or knowledge.”
“Schools routinely send notes home to parents about trivial matters, like missing homework, so it is unfathomable that Escondido Union School District has a policy that forces teachers to withhold from parents some of the most fundamental and basic information about their children,” Jonna added in his own statement.
“The real outrage here is that schools are requiring educators to hide critical information from parents about their child’s well-being,” Jonna continued. “Rather than partnering with parents to help raise up young people with a well-rounded education and breadth of knowledge, these radical agendas are pitting parents and teachers against one another, to the detriment of their students.”
California, widely considered the most far-left state in the nation, has taken legislative steps to assist with such secretive approaches to childrens’ so-called “gender identity” in schools. Earlier this month, a bill was introduced in the California State Assembly that would require public school districts to inform parents whenever their children assume a new “gender identity.” The bill ultimately died in committee after backlash from the far-left and pro-transgender groups.