Defending Education has announced it has filed a civil rights complaint against Seattle Public Schools (SPS) for violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). This civil rights complaint is Defending Education's latest in its efforts to restore schools at all levels from activists imposing harmful agendas.
🚨BREAKING: 1/ Defending Ed has filed a federal complaint against Seattle Public Schools for violations against FERPA and the PPRA. pic.twitter.com/WtPhKtrFCf
— Defending Education (@DefendingEd) December 16, 2025
Here's more from Defending Education:
As far as the prevalence of gender identity in education is concerned, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is among the nation’s worst offenders. Not only does SPS maintain an express policy of keeping the gender identity information of minor children from their own parents, and not only does the school system prevent parents from opting their children out of the kind of normative LGBTQ+ themed curriculum that the U.S. Supreme Court determined was a violation of parental religious liberty rights, but SPS goes even further.
Defending Education’s investigation has revealed that SPS administrators have solicited “gender-affirming supplies” such as chest binders, “trans tape,” nipple guards, and tucking underwear from Seattle Children’s Hospital for the district’s “Community Health Lockers” project geared toward facilitation of minor children’s gender identity transitions. Together, these SPS policies violate two critical privacy laws: the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (“PPRA”). They also run afoul of White House guidance on this issue of gender identity, including at least three executive orders.
For these reasons, we’ve asked the Student Privacy Policy Office at the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice to swiftly investigate SPS for these apparent violations of federal law.
Defending Education says SPS is one of the "nation's worst offenders" when it comes to gender identity in the classroom. This includes secrecy policies, opt-out restrictions for parents, and the procurement of "gender-affirming supplies."
2/ Seattle Public Schools is one of the nation's worst offenders in pushing gender identity in the classroom. SPS maintains gender-secrecy policies, imposes opt-out restrictions on parents, and has solicited gender-affirming supplies for minors—like “trans tape,” nipple guards,… pic.twitter.com/yssiuV6sqy
— Defending Education (@DefendingEd) December 16, 2025
Sara Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at Defending Education, penned an op-ed in The Washington Times, calling on the Department of Education and Department of Justice to investigate SPS.
Seattle Public Schools is under an astonishing misconception: that it owns its students and the rights of those students’ custodial parents constitute a mere inconvenience to be circumvented.
The notion that these minors are, as the U.S. Supreme Court once noted, mere “creatures of the state,” is even more spurious in light of the court’s recent determination in Mahmoud v. Taylor that by preventing religious parents from opting their children out of an LGBTQ-themed curriculum, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland had interfered with the right of those parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children.
Seattle Public Schools doesn’t care about such judicial trivialities. It is apparently more interested in aggressive sexual politicking and indoctrination that run counter to constitutional and statutory federal law. Its flagging National Assessment of Educational Progress scores for 2024 make the point: Since 2019, reading and math scores in Seattle Public Schools have been declining, while absenteeism has increased. Its trans-obsessed policies aren’t just making it worse; they are illegal.
Parshall Perry cites Mahmoud v. Taylor, the recent Supreme Court decision holding that parents have a Constitutional right to opt their children out of LGBTQ lessons on religious grounds.
Townhall spoke with Parshall Perry about the complaint. She emphasized that the federal government should consider cutting funding to places like SPS for failing to comply with federal law.
"Funding options should be exercised," Parshall Perry said. "That may be the only opportunity to take the bite out of the gender-medicine space."
"The federal government can require adherence to certain terms for the doling out of federal funding," she added. "Places like SPS don't have to accept federal funding, but once they do, they are beholden to federal law."
She says gender identitarianism has "run amok," and it's gratifying when the Department of Justice or Department of Education opens an investigation and divests funding. That, Parshall Perry notes, is also Constitutional and within the purview of Congressional spending power.
Even though places like Seattle have state and local laws that contradict federal law, Parshall Perry knows what wins.
"I have news for you: the Constitution's supremacy clause can tell you what prevails – that's a fundamental first-year law school principle," she said.
She's also happy with the Trump administration's response to these complaints. "They're doing real yeoman’s work with the resources that they have right now," Parshall Perry said. She added that the administration has gone after some of the "biggest bad actors," including Maine Governor Janet Mills and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
While Mahmoud v. Taylor gives parents the right to opt out of LGBTQ lessons, parents in Seattle — as of right now — can't sue. Under FERPA and PPRA, there is no private right of action.
That's why the work of Defending Education is so important.
"Right now, the only recourse is for individuals or organizations to file complaints," Parshall Perry said. "And that may draw the hoary eye of the administration, and possibly pull federal funding."
Editor's Note: President Trump is fighting to dismantle the Department of Education and ensure America's kids get the education they deserve.
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