Legal group Thomas More Society has filed suit against the School District of the Chathams on behalf of national advocacy organization Moms for Liberty challenging the district's policy that allows school personnel to hide a child's social gender transition — including changes to names and pronouns and whether the child is using restrooms or locker rooms of the opposite sex — from their parents without parental consent.
Thomas More Society argues the district is defying recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, including Mirabelli v. Bonta, which upheld parents' constitutional rights to guide their children's upbringing.
Tina Descovich, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, says it shuts parents out of life-altering choices.
Legal representatives previously requested that the district rescind the policy. However, at a public meeting, Board President Ann Ciccarelli stated that the Supreme Court's Mirabelli decision was not binding on New Jersey public school districts — a stance Descovich calls the most troubling part of the conflict.
"The most egregious thing that's been said was actually said by the school board chair," she relays.
Ciccarelli appears to believe Mirabelli v. Bonta, a Supreme Court decision earlier this year, isn't binding because the Supreme Court did not issue a final merits judgment striking down California's policies nationwide; it vacated an appellate stay of a particular injunction while the underlying litigation continues. Whether the constitutional reasoning in that decision requires a New Jersey district to change its policy is one of the questions now headed for federal court.
Descovich emphasizes that while this specific challenge is playing out in New Jersey, the dispute reflects a national debate over parental rights.
"It's happening everywhere, and parents need to be on high alert," she asserts.
"People think they live in a red state or a red county or they know their school board members, but these policies exist, and the Supreme Court has now ruled on three occasions ... that parents have the fundamental right to raise their children, that they can opt out of things that violate their religious beliefs, and that schools cannot transition children without their parents' knowledge."
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to strike down the district's policy and require parental notification and consent before any social transition occurs at school.
