According to recent reports, two Christian teachers in California are advancing a legal case over their school district’s policy on gender-related issues. A lawsuit on behalf of the teachers alleges that current policy encourages teachers to “lie to parents” about students who are undergoing secret gender transitions.
Lori Ann West and Elizabeth Mirabelli, who are both Christian, are employed at Rincon Middle School within the Escondido Union School District in California. Objecting to the existing policy on parental notification, both have requested religious accommodation, per the lawsuit.
West denounced the school district’s stance on the transgender issue, alleging that it assumes the role of a parent on such an important issue. “I just looked around the room like, is this real? This is really happening? This seems crazy. This seems like the school wants to take over to be the parent. And as a parent, I would not want that for my own children,” she said.
West continued discussing the possible disciplinary action that could follow for refusing to adhere to the gender policy. “One of the things that also really bothered us was that there was a disciplinary part of this policy that if we didn’t follow it, we could possibly be written up, even leading to firing. And that was really where I was like, this is so wrong,” she explained.
“I believe in the teachings of the Bible… We follow the laws in the Bible. And that’s a wonderful thing. And it seems like at my school, we have been put down for that,” West said. “A number of teachers posed a question to our admin team asking when our wider community would be notified about this new policy. We never really got an answer, which made us a little suspicious,” Mirabelli stated during an interview.
“Both Mirabelli and West are being illegally prevented from returning to their classrooms and both have been punitively targeted in retaliation for their whistleblower actions against the district,” according to the Thomas More Society, the legal group representing the Christian teachers.
“Public schools should never hide information from or lie to parents about a child’s mental health or personal circumstances. And schools should never compel teachers to perpetrate such a deception,” the original complaint claimed. “Yet, the Escondido Union School District has done just that… Once a child’s social transitioning has begun, EUSD elementary and middle school teachers must ensure that parents do not find out.”
“If a suspicious parent asks a teacher about whether their child has socially transitioned at school, the teacher must simply respond that ‘the inquiry is outside of the scope of the intent of their interaction’ and that they can only discuss ‘information regarding the student’s behavior as it relates to school, class rules, assignments, etc.,’” the suit added.
West and Mirabelli’s lawsuit alleges the school district is violating the Free Speech and Free Excercise Clauses of the First Amendment by carrying out the transgender policy. Reportedly, the teachers have been on administrative leave for months since refusing to follow the controversial rule.
Moreover, the teachers recently moved to hold the school district in contempt of federal court for continuing to bar the teachers from working even after a ruling that the district was violating the constitutional rights of West and Mirabelli.
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