Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is leading a 23 state coalition in an amicus brief filed in support of a California mom who is suing a school district for allegedly hiding her daughter’s gender transition, the Daily Caller has learned.
The amicus brief, reviewed exclusively by the Daily Caller, was filed Friday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and advocates for parents to “retain their fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their minor children.” The states that signed onto the brief include Montana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Aurora Regino sued California’s Chico Unified School District after a counselor allegedly helped her daughter secretly transition genders in January 2023. The Center for American Liberty, representing the girl’s mother, sued the superintendent and various school board members within the district. A school counselor allegedly used the girl’s preferred male name and pronouns while at school without informing her mother. The daughter now believes her “feelings of gender confusion were brought on by the stress of other difficulties in her life,” such as her father’s death and her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis, according to the lawsuit.
“[T]his is no isolated occurrence: school districts across the country have adopted similar policies under the mistaken belief that to do otherwise would be unlawful. Yet here, the district court erroneously held that Regino failed to allege a liberty interest protected by the Constitution….This Court should correct that error and reverse,” the brief reads. (RELATED: Mom Sues School That Allegedly Hid Her Daughter’s Gender Transition, Provided Chest Binders)
Chico California school district mother Aurora Regino says her daughter was transitioned from a female to a male by school staff without her knowledge.
The school counselor capitalized on a vulnerable time in her daughter’s life as Regino’s father had just passed and she was… pic.twitter.com/wTRDpg8fzt
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 13, 2023
“Parents have a fundamental, constitutional right to be involved in the decision making process when a child considers transitioning gender,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told the Daily Caller. “But strong-armed by ideologically driven advocacy groups, school districts across the country have trampled on these rights by withholding information from parents and shutting them out of the process. The lower court made a grave error in denying this mother’s right, and by extension all other parents’ right, to direct the upbringing of her minor child — a right the Supreme Court has described as ‘essential’ and ‘precious.’”
A judge dismissed the case against the district in July, arguing teachers had not been keeping the identity of their students secret, since the decision to socially transition is “made by the student, not the District.”
“When a student considers transitioning genders, parents have a fun-damental, constitutional right to not be shut out of that decisionmaking process,” the brief continues. “Yet school districts across the country, strong-armed by ideologically driven advocacy groups, have done just that, trampling on parents’ fundamental right to be informed of critical information about their child’s mental health and well-being. This Court must therefore reverse.”
Lawmakers introduced the Prohibiting Parental Secrecy Policies in Schools Act as a response to Regino’s lawsuit in March. The law would withhold federal funding from schools that do not implement policies requiring parental permission for social transition. Lawmakers have not yet voted on the legislation at the time of writing.
“This is her daughter and the school system is trying to align things in such a way that kids shouldn’t trust their parents. Well, who should they trust? Nine-to-five bureaucrats or the person that’s with them seven days a week otherwise? It puts a wedge between kids and their parents — that’s pretty messed up,” Republican California Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who sponsored the legislation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in March.
The Chico Unified School Board voted in April to keep the school policy that directs teachers to keep a student’s gender transition confidential unless that student offers written permission for the information to be shared.