The federal court opinion, released Oct. 10, came 2 ½ years after a Jefferson Elementary teacher, Megan Williams, read two trans-related children’s books to her class in recognition of “Transgender Awareness Day.”
Jefferson Elementary is part of the Mt. Lebanon School District, which serves approximately 5,500 students in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.
The parents listed as plaintiffs, all mothers, are Carmilla Tatel, Stacy Dunn, and Gretchen Melton, according to a story by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The plaintiffs were represented by a Pittsburgh attorney, David Berardinelli.
The 96-page opinion from U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti defended the rights of the parents to determine if their child is subjected to controversial issues a parent would object to. The plaintiffs had a “constitutional right” to know about the transgender topics, Judge Conti wrote, especially since Jefferson Elementary has a policy for students opting out of topics that are sensitive in nature.
The district has sent opt-out letters in the past, the Post-Gazette said, for a therapy dog visit and for classroom discussions during religious holidays.
Williams, however, did not inform parents she would be reading two books, “When Aidan Became a Brother” and “Introducing Teddy."
According to the newspaper story, citing court documents, the teacher proceeded to read the second book even after the first one caused confusion among the children, and after a teacher’s aide cautioned her about the content.
“I hope you were okay with that lesson,” Williams, after reading the first book, told the aide.
“It doesn’t matter what I think,” the aide replied. “It matters what they think and what their parents think.”
'Sometimes parents are wrong'
Judge Conti's timely court opinion, which instructs Mt. Lebanon to abide by its own opt-out policy, comes at the very same time the issue of parental rights could be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, AFN has reported.
Becket Law, a religious liberty law firm, is asking the high court to hear its appeal in Mahmoud v. Taylor. That multi-parent lawsuit is fighting Maryland's largest public district, Montgomery County Public Schools, after it refused to adopt an opt-out policy.
The suing parents and Becket should find out this fall is the Supreme Court will take up the case.
Reacting to Judge Conti's opinion, Liberty Counsel constitutional attorney Daniel Schmid tells AFN it was clear the teacher sowed confusion in the minds of children – even to the point of suggesting their parents’ own views are wrong.
Schmid was recalling a classroom conversation, confirmed in the Post-Gazette story, in which the teacher told students that parents “make a guess” about whether a child is a boy or a girl.
“Sometimes parents are wrong,” the teacher told the first graders.
“And the court said,” Schmid points out, “that is a gross intrusion into the fundamental rights of parents to direct the upbringing of their children.”
“A teacher instructing first-graders, and reading books to show that their parents’ beliefs about their children’s gender identity may be wrong, directly repudiates parental authority,” Judge Conti wrote.
