School Backpedals After Lawsuit, Drops Secret Student Gender Policy

A New Jersey school district on Monday agreed to rescind a policy that allowed teachers and school officials to keep parents in the dark about their children’s “gender identities.”

The School District of the Chathams in 2024 ruled that counselors could determine “whether, and to what extent, parents/guardians can be involved” after students expressed a desire to identify as a different gender. In August, Moms For Liberty and the Thomas More Society sued the school district, alleging that the policy violated parents’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

“No school has the authority to transition a child behind his or her parents’ backs, and the Supreme Court made that unmistakably clear,” Christopher Ferrara, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, said.

Citing two recent Supreme Court cases, the Thomas More Society wrote to the school district demanding it rescind the policy. On June 15, school board President Ann Ciccarelli claimed that at least one of those cases did not apply to New Jersey schools.

“This board told New Jersey parents the ruling didn’t apply to them, kept its secret transition policy on the books, and forced families to go to federal court to protect their own children,” Ferrara said.

“The Chathams Board of Education had every opportunity to fix this policy,” he added. “Instead, its own president stood up at a public meeting and told parents that Supreme Court precedent simply doesn’t apply to them. That is not a legal argument; it is defiance of the law of the land.”

Moms For Liberty asked the court to declare the policy unconstitutional and block its enforcement unless and until it was amended to require parental notice and consent before a student is allowed to adopt a new name or pronouns, or engage in any other activities based on a newly asserted gender identity.

The school board voted unanimously to settle the suit, which it did on October 15. As part of the settlement, the district agreed that it would not implement a similar policy in the future.

“Now that the policy is gone for good, every teacher and counselor in the district will receive a copy of the board’s written commitment to respect parents’ rights,” Ferrara said. “Districts that choose to still hide children’s gender transitions from their parents can follow the Chathams’ lead and change course now, or they can explain themselves to a federal judge.”