The State of New Jersey sued three Monmouth County school districts over their new policies requiring school officials to inform parents if their child wishes to transition to another gender.
New Jersey’s Attorney General, Matthew Platkin, sued the Middletown, Marlboro, and Manalapan school districts on Thursday after they enacted transgender student policies surrounding parental notification and pronoun usage in school.
The Democrat’s lawsuits allege that the school districts “unlawfully discriminate against students on the basis of gender identity and gender expression, in violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, and [the policies] will result in significant and irreversible harm to students if not enjoined.”
The lawsuit continues to characterize parents as threats to their own children by saying that parental disclosure will “irreparably harm transgender students.” He also claims “outing” students “poses serious mental health risks; threatens physical harm to students, including increased risk of suicide; and shirks the District’s duty to create a safe and supportive learning environment for all.”
All three districts approved the policies Tuesday, provoking Platkin to file “emergency” lawsuits within 24 hours. The districts all now require that school officials notify parents if their child changes gender identity or expression.
Further, Manalapan determined that the “responsibility for determining a student’s gender identity rests with the student’s parents/guardians” for children in Pre-K through 5th grade, rather than with the student.
The local district rules conflict with the New Jersey Department of Education’s transgender policy, which mandates that “school district[s] shall keep confidential a … student’s transgender status,” even from parents. The NJDOE also states that if the district does reveal a student’s “transgender status,” it should “facilitate the family’s acceptance and support of the student’s transgender status.”
If the school districts do not comply with the NJDOE’s mandates, they could lose state funding or face the even more severe repercussion of state takeover, according to New Jersey 101.5. The state has taken over mismanaged school districts in the past and threatened districts with financial sanctions if they did not implement mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Middletown School Board has been a thorn in the side of Governor Phil Murphy’s administration before by initially not complying with his mask mandates. After the Democrat threatened to take them to court, the township complied.
Many local parents lauded their school board’s decision.
“The LGBTQIA community claims to be an all-inclusi[ve] community, but instead they are here trying to advocate to not include parents,” one mother said to claps from the crowd. “Their position interferes with my ability to help my children. And they keep telling young children that it is their parents’ fault for not wanting to help them transition, and to be afraid of their parents.”
She continued, “They are trying to get into young kids’ heads by having them think that their parents are not safe. They are forcing children to turn to other people than their own family. It is not their job to decide what is appropriate in my home. My children belong to me and no one else.”
One father told the school board, “I’m sorry that some of the people in this room feel that parents should be left out of the conversation. … Parents are the most important people in kids’ lives. And we want to know what’s going on with our kids.”