Thomas More Society is representing California teachers Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West in the lawsuit Mirabelli, et al. v. Olson, et al. The teachers, who teach middle school in the Escondido Union School District, filed suit in 2023 after a school training session informed teachers they must keep a student’s gender identity hidden from their own parents.
With that legal fight still going on, Thomas More has filed a motion asking a federal judge to allow four parents and two more Escondido teachers to join the lawsuit as new plaintiffs.
In a complete reversal from Escondido’s policy, a public school district named Lakeside Union is also asking to join as a plaintiff so it can approve a parental notification policy without fear of legal action from the State of California.
With new plaintiffs asking to join, Thomas More is also asking the federal court to upgrade the suit to class-action status.
Paul Jonna, special counsel for Thomas More Society, says the request for an expanded federal lawsuit comes at the same time Californians are witnessing their state publicly take a stance against parents.
“The California governor just signed into law AB 1955, which proports to eliminate the possibility of a school district having a policy that would allow for teachers to disclose to the parents of the students the fact that those students have a gender identity issue at school."
California’s liberal-dominated legislature passed AB 1955 after a conservative school district, Chino Valley, approved a parental notification policy in July 2023. Other like-minded school districts around the state quickly passed similar polices.
Robert Bonta, California’s liberal attorney general, sued Chino Valley for what he called a “forced outing policy” that “threatens the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ students.”
Unlike a sexual identity such as lesbian or gay, however, transgender ideology celebrates a boy who pretends he is a girl, or a boy who pretends he is a girl, with the support of teachers who may have introduced the made-up ideology to their own students.
Regarding the two-year-old lawsuit, Jonna points out a federal judge ordered a preliminary injunction that stopped the state government and public school districts from enforcing polices that hide a child’s private information from their own parents.
Thomas More argues that key ruling, handed down 10 months ago, has gone ignored by their legal adversaries who are using state courts and state law to punish school districts such as Chino Valley and teachers such as Mirabelli and West.
“And they went on to now pass this AB 1955,” Jonna says, “which sort of looks pretty clear to be trying to circumvent that court's orders."
