The administration of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is suing three school districts in the state over a policy requiring staff to notify parents if their children show signs of changing “gender identity.”
Attorney General Matt Platkin, a Democrat, reportedly filed lawsuits against school districts on Wednesday. The lawsuit alleged that the Manalapan-Englishtown, Marlboro and Middletown school districts violated state anti-discrimination law (by Policy):
“Releasing” these students against their will poses grave mental health risks; threatens students with physical harm, including exposure to increased rates of suicide; reduces the likelihood that students will seek support; and evades the District’s obligation to create a safe and sound and supportive learning environment for all,” Marlboro’s lawsuit reads. “Indeed, LGBTQ+ students in New Jersey and elsewhere have done just that died by suicide after being thrown out“
The lawsuits, which seek to stop districts from enforcing the policy, come at a time when suburban and rural school districts are seeing some of the most intense battles in the culture wars, taking place nationally and in New Jersey. Middletown is also where Murphy lives.
Last month, New Jersey filed an application similar lawsuit v. Hanover Board of Education. The two sides are currently at an impasse over changing Morris County’s parental notification policy.
Guidance from the state claims that schools will “ensure” that students are addressed by their preferred names and pronouns, can dress “consistent with their gender identity,” and that “parental consent is not required” for the district to accept a student’s “stated gender identity” .
“School policies that single out or target LGBTQ+ youth run counter to our state’s long-standing commitment to equality,” Sundeep Iyer, director of the Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “Our laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or gender expression in plain and simple terms, and we will not wave in our commitment to enforce these protections.”
Marc Zitomer, an attorney for the Marlboro school board, told Politico in a statement that “we strongly disagree with the Attorney General’s argument that notifying parents that their minor child is changing his or her gender identity or gender expression is in any way discriminatory or inappropriate.”
“In our view, keeping parents in the dark about important issues affecting their children is counterintuitive and contrary to established U.S. Supreme Court case law that parents have a constitutional right to direct and control the upbringing of their children,” Zitomer added.
Each school district reportedly makes exceptions to its policy of notifying parents if there is reason to believe that doing so would put a student in danger.
Townhall described several cases in which school districts across the country tried to keep parents away from information about their child’s gender identity, including: in Colorado, Virginia, Kansas, Ohio and California. Last year, Republican Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), who will run for the White House in 2024, introduced legislation to prevent schools from hiding information about students’ gender identity from parents.
“The law in the United States has long recognized the importance of parental rights. The right of parents to supervise their child’s education is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment,” the bill states. “Parents have a fundamental, constitutionally guaranteed right to raise and educate their children in the way they want.”
“Public schools across the country are violating these basic parental and family rights by intentionally withholding information about gender reassignment from parents,” it continues. “These schools sabotage parent-child relationships and encourage children to keep secrets from the adults who are supposed to protect and defend them – their parents.”
