Parents Defending Education (PDE), a parental rights advocacy group, has brought a lawsuit against Linn-Mar community school district (LMCSD) of Iowa. The lawsuit alleges That the district is violating students’ First and 14th Amendment rights with its “Transgender and Students Nonconforming to Gender Role Stereotypes” policy. PDE explained this in a release.
Linn-Mar School Board approved policy 504.13, despite protestations from dozens community members. Parents were told that the change was merely codifying district practices that have been in place for five years. LMCSD’s “parental exclusion policy” asserts that the district will not disclose a student’s “transgender status” to parents unless that student specifically authorizes it, and that “any student in seventh grade or older will have priority of their support plan over their parent/guardian” – which means that in practice, these gender-identity decisions will be made solely by the student and school administrators.
The organization also noted that “The policy specifically emphasizes that gender support plans are to be kept in a separate ‘temporary’ file, so that materials and records related to the gender support plan will NEVER be accessible to parents.”
PDE is filing the lawsuit “on behalf of several members in the district whose children are directly impacted by policy 504.13 on both the parental exclusion provision as well as the compelled speech provision,” and pointed out that children on the autism spectrum are more vulnerable to being influenced to transition to the opposite gender. This topic was covered in another article.
A nationwide protest has been brewing since the discovery that K-12 school districts had adopted radical, progressive ideas inspired from critical race theory. The backlash against public schools grew more severe when it became clear that some districts had also been teaching problematic gender identity lessons in the classroom. It became even worse when parents realized that many of these institutions were helping children transition to the opposite gender without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
These troubling trends have been opposed by many who protest at school boards meetings, and expose the materials being shown to children. States have passed legislation restricting such teachings. PDE does not believe that these schools should be held responsible. They filed lawsuits against several school districts for violating racial policy and against even the Biden administration. I had the pleasure of interviewing the organization’s president, Nicole Neily, about PDE’s legal action against the White House’s fake education advisory council.
Protesting at school board meetings and passing laws are necessary steps to remove these teachings from our public schools. It is essential to win school board seats and gain political power. However, the United States has another tool at its disposal to take on these school districts. No one would enjoy the idea of having to face lawsuits. PDE, along with other entities, are at the forefront in this effort and another reason that we will ultimately win.
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