Two teachers in Escondido, San Diego County, California are currently suing the local school district over some of its policies. Their lawyer is currently seeking to add a group of teachers, parents, and the Lakeside Union School District as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. These teachers and parents are against the district’s policy of concealing information about their children’s gender identity transitions from parents.
According to a report from the city’s news agency, the lawsuit was filed by two teachers from Rincon Middle School, Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West. The lawsuit aims to block certain policies of the Escondido Union School District (EUSD) that require teachers to use specific gender names or pronouns requested by students while keeping this information confidential, including not informing the students’ parents.
On September 14th last year, a federal judge in San Diego ruled against the school district disciplining the two teachers for refusing to conceal their students’ transgender tendencies from parents. The judge supported the teachers’ position and issued a preliminary injunction, halting the implementation of related policies by the Escondido district.
In a motion filed on the 7th of this month, Mirabelli and West’s lawyers are looking to include several new plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including two additional EUSD teachers and two pairs of parents who wish to remain anonymous. The lawyers stated that Mirabelli and West have both faced “severe harassment and retaliation”.
These potential additional teacher and parent plaintiffs oppose EUSD’s policy on “religious and moral grounds”, similar to the positions of Mirabelli and West, as they believe the policy infringes on their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religious freedom.
Officials from the Lakeside Union School District have not commented on the matter yet, but a statement from the lawyers indicated that the district is seeking “declaratory relief” to be able to establish policies that inform parents without facing legal challenges from state officials.
“Declaratory relief” allows parties to prevent potential damages from accumulating while their rights are not clearly defined and obtain a court ruling before entering into mandatory litigation.
Other state school districts that have required school staff to notify parents of transgender students have faced lawsuits from institutions like the California Attorney General’s Office and the California Department of Education.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, in a statement regarding similar lawsuits brought against the Chino Valley Unified School District, emphasized his office’s dedication to “protecting equal protection, non-discrimination, and privacy rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming students; disclosing a student’s gender identity without their consent violates these fundamental rights protections and may go against the obligation to treat all students equally.”
Bonta also mentioned in the statement that the preliminary injunction in the Escondido district case does not affect another judge’s decision to stop the Chino Valley Unified School District’s parent notification policy.