SAN DIEGO (CN) — For two middle school teachers in Escondido, California claiming school protocols protecting transgender and gender-nonconforming students' privacy violates their religious liberties and free speech, the question of who is responsible for enforcing that policy — and if it really is a even policy — became the central issue at a Monday hearing to dismiss their suit.
The teachers sued the Escondido School District, and various staff members at the district and the California Board of Education in April 2023, and claimed that Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta are also responsible for enforcing a rule stating that the teachers cannot reveal students' gender identities without permission.
Newsom and Bonta asked the court to dismiss them as defendants because the school district’s protocol was based on “guidance,” not binding policies, posted on the California Department of Education’s website as a series of frequently asked questions that dealt with reducing stigmatization of transgender and gender-nonconforming students.
Emmanuelle Soichet, an attorney representing the attorney general, said Monday that the teachers only made vague allusions to threats of enforcement of the guidelines in their original complaint.
“We’re ready to disavow any enforcement,” Soichet said.
“Great, problem solved,” said U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, a George W. Bush appointee.
“Not quite, Your Honor,” replied Paul Jonna of the Thomas More Society, who represents the two plaintiffs.
Using a series of press releases and news articles, Jonna argued that it isn't just about how Escondido schools interpreted the state’s guidelines for how school districts should treat transgender and gender-nonconforming students but how school districts across the state are made to comply with them.
Jonna specifically singled out Newsom's threat to sue the Temecula Valley Unified School District in 2023 for not approving a social studies curriculum for elementary school students that included supplementary material that mentioned Harvey Milk, the former San Francisco supervisor and gay rights advocate. The board eventually approved the curriculum.
Benitez concluded that Newsom's statements have not crossed over into state action yet, and took Soichet's statements that the state would not enforce the guideline as binding. Benitez then dismissed Newsom and Bonta from the case.
Jonna also said Monday that the plaintiffs planned to add on two more Escondido teachers, and two parents — one of which is from the Los Angeles area — as plaintiffs. Benitez denied them the opportunity to orally make the motion to add more plaintiffs, but allowed them to submit it in writing.
At the moment, this is a narrow case involving two teachers from a particular school district, not a class action, Benitez said.
“We’re dealing with the case that’s before me, not the case you want to have,” he added.
In their original lawsuit, the two teachers challenge the Escondido Unified School District’s requirement that school employees treat student’s transgender or gender-nonconforming identities as private information that cannot be shared with others — including other teachers, parents and guardians — without express permission from the student. Teachers were also instructed to use the pronouns matching the students' identity.
The plaintiffs — middle school English teacher Elizabeth Mirabelli and middle school P.E. teacher Lori Ann West — claim the policy, which they say was adopted in private and without a public meeting, also required teachers to use the pronouns the students identify with in class while using the pronouns matching their legal names when talking to their parents or guardians if the student does not give permission to school employees to identify themselves as trans or gender-nonconforming to their parents.
Mirabelli and West claim these privacy requirements caused them anxiety and other medical issues over the stress of squaring the rules with their own Catholic and Christian religious beliefs about parental rights, and their "religious and moral duty to provide parents with all information that is needed to properly care for and raise their children."
Mirabelli and West say the policies are unworkable.
"Morally and religiously, they know that the complex issues of gender dysphoria and gender identity are not issues best left for children to figure out on their own, with no parental involvement whatsoever,” the teachers say in their lawsuit.
The American Psychiatric Association’s website refers to gender dysphoria as “psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity” which some transgender people might experience.
“Transgender children and adolescents are often victims of bullying and discrimination at school, which can contribute to serious adverse mental health outcomes. Interventions are often needed to create safe and affirming school environments,” the association adds.
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