During school-wide training a couple of years ago, Rincon Middle School teachers Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, a devout Catholic and Christian, respectively, were shocked to learn they would be required to keep their students' gender identities a secret from the kids' own parents, unless such a student gave them permission otherwise.
Jeffery Trissell, special counsel for the Thomas More Society and a senior associate for LiMandri and Jonna LLP, says Mirabelli and West had never had transgender students in their classes, so the policy did not become a problem until the start of the next school year, when they had five or six gender-confused students per class.
"We helped them try to negotiate an accommodation with the school district, and when that broke down, we had to file a federal lawsuit," Trissell details.
When that brought national attention to the school, the teachers were barred from going to work.
"We got a preliminary injunction saying that they can't be fired for not following the policy, but the school district still said, 'Ok, we're just going to keep you on paid administrative leave; we're not going to put you back in the classroom,'" the attorney relays.
In a September ruling, the federal judge hearing the case agreed with the teachers, striking down the privacy policy for possible violations of the Constitution. That should have meant Mirabelli and West returned to work as soon as possible, but that did not happen.
Now, after months of back and forth with attorneys for the Escondido Unified School District, the judge has ordered the district to allow the two back to work.
"Mrs. West is super excited to go back. She's been on leave for eight months," Trissell says. "Mrs. Mirabelli [is] still trying to figure out how to get back into the classroom and deal with the harassment."
With similar cases bringing instrumental benefits and wins across the country, Trissell calls this "one of the first steps in the right direction," as it includes a 36-page order from the judge that explains why requiring teachers to deceive parents about students' gender preferences is unconstitutional.
