The New Jersey Attorney General is suing three school districts for requiring teachers to notify parents if their child requests to be treated as a different gender while at school.
Several New Jersey school districts approved policies on June 20 requiring teachers to notify parents if a student is “socially transitioning” his or her gender: for instance, by asking to be called different pronouns or using a restroom that doesn’t correspond with the student’s actual sex.
In a lawsuit filed June 21, Attorney General Matt Platkin alleges that the districts, Manalapan-Englishtown, Marlboro, and Middletown, are violating the state law against discrimination.
In one of three briefs filed by Platkin, he expresses concern that “outing” a “transgender” youth will “irreparably harm transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary students.”
The brief says that the policy “deprives these students of a supportive school environment that prioritizes their deeply personal choices when it comes to identity, pronouns, and even their own name.”
The AG goes on to say that the school’s parental notification policy is “unlawful discrimination” and a violation of privacy.
A representative of one of the schools countered the AG’s accusations.
“…[I]t is our position that keeping parents in the dark about important issues involving their children is counterintuitive and contrary to well established Supreme Court case law that says that parents have a constitutional right to direct and control the upbringing of their children,” said Marc H. Zitomer on behalf of the Board of Education for Marlboro Township, NJ.
“We…have an exception in our policy if such notification would endanger the health or safety of the child”, he said.
The founder of the New Jersey Project, an organization which fights for parents rights in education, spoke out against the AG.
“We want transparency with the school,” said the founder, Nikki Stouffer. “Our children are safer when we know more about what’s happening in school. Why in the world would the AG and [Gov. Phil] Murphy think that it would be appropriate to hide any sort of information from parents?”
The new policies are on hold pending legal action.
