A Trifecta of Harm

I’m sending out a very brief update regarding the concealment of critical information about students from their parents, which I wrote about here.

Today, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California issued a decision in Mirabelli v. Olson, in which the court issued an injunction against the Escondido School District that prohibits the district from enforcing "EUSD AR 5145.3 or the associated official policy described in the California Department of Education’s FAQs page on gender identity-related disclosures by teachers to parents," and restrains “any governmental employee or entity from taking any adverse employment actions thereupon against Plaintiffs Mirabelli or West, until further Order of this Court." (at pp. 35-36).

In other words, a federal court has determined that a school district cannot compel its teachers to conceal information from parents about their children, noting that such a policy creates the following "trifecta of harm":

"[I]t harms the child who needs parental guidance and possibly mental health intervention to determine if the incongruence is organic or whether it is the result of bullying, peer pressure, or a fleeting impulse. It harms the parents by depriving them of the long recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to care, guide, and make health care decisions for their children. And finally, it harms plaintiffs who are compelled to violate the parent’s rights by forcing plaintiffs to conceal information they feel is critical for the welfare of their students -- violating plaintiffs’ religious beliefs." (at p. 35).

Read the full decision here.