Two Massachusetts parents were blindsided when they learned that middle school officials had been referring to their two pre-teens by different names and pronouns—and deliberately hiding it from both parents. Now the Goldwater Institute has filed a brief in support of their request that the Supreme Court take up their case and affirm parental rights.
When Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri enrolled their children in Baird Middle School in Ludlow, Mass., they didn’t know about the school’s policy requiring teachers to honor a student’s request to be known by a different name and referred to with pronouns not typically associated with their biological sex. The school mandates that teachers conceal this information from parents. They were furious to learn that the school honored such requests from both their children, 11 and 12 at the time, without informing them.
When Stephen and Marissa confronted school officials, administrators stood by their actions. Left with no other recourse, they filed a federal lawsuit against the school district for violating their constitutionally protected parental rights. Ultimately, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First found absolutely no problem with the school’s behavior.
But as the Goldwater Institute notes in its amicus brief, the Supreme Court has consistently—for the last century—held that parents have a fundamental right to control and direct the education, upbringing, and healthcare decisions of their children. Parents cannot exercise this right if the government hides vital information about their kids from them, because they cannot meaningfully decide what school is best for their children.
In Stephen and Marissa’s case, the school’s actions were not an accident or the result of reasoned decision-making based on the circumstances of this specific situation. Instead, the school acted in accordance with a blanket policy that prohibits officials from telling parents that their child is asserting a gender identity different from their biological sex. The policy therefore mandates not just silence, but active concealment, requiring school officials to take affirmative steps to hide essential information from parents.
It’s unacceptable, immoral and unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has made it clear that parental rights are broad and intrusions should only be tolerated when they are necessary to protect the health and safety of children, like laws against child labor.
Stephen and Marissa’s situation draws parallels to a similar case in Maine, where Goldwater is standing up for Amber Lavigne’s parental rights after public school officials purposefully concealed information about her 13-year-old daughter’s gender identity. School officials not only hid the fact that Amber’s daughter asked to be referred to by a different name and pronouns, but they also defended a school social worker who gave the child a chest binder and encouraged her not to tell her parents. Across the country, schools are putting themselves between parents and children, attempting to replace parents as the primary raisers of their children.
Public school secrecy goes beyond gender transitions. In states like Rhode Island and Texas, Goldwater is helping concerned parents get the answers they deserve after school districts charged them thousands of dollars in public records fees to find out what’s going on in their kids’ schools.
Whether it is matters of health or questions about their children’s curriculum, public schools should never hide things from parents. That is why the Goldwater Institute is fighting to empower moms and dads, not activist educators, to make decisions that best meet their children’s needs.
You can read Goldwater’s brief here.
Adam Shelton is a Staff Attorney at the Goldwater Institute.
