New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) administration has sued three school districts in the state over policies that require staff to inform parents if their children show signs of changing their “gender identity.”
The lawsuits against the school districts were reportedly filed on Wednesday by Attorney General Matt Platkin, a Democrat. In the lawsuit, he alleged that the Manalapan-Englishtown, Marlboro and Middletown school districts violated the state’s law against discrimination (via Politico):
“‘Outing’ these students against their will poses serious mental health risks; threatens physical harm to students, including risking increased suicides; decreases the likelihood students will seek support; and shirks the District’s obligation to create a safe and supportive learning environment for all,” reads the Marlboro lawsuit. “Indeed, LGBTQ+ students in New Jersey and elsewhere have died by suicide after being outed.”
The lawsuits, which seek to stop the districts enforcing the policies, come as some of the most intense battles of the culture wars, nationally and in New Jersey, play out in suburban and rural school districts. Middletown is also where Murphy resides.
Last month, New Jersey filed a similar lawsuit against the Hanover Board of Education. The two sides are currently at an impasse over how to amend the Morris County district’s parental notification policy.
Guidance from the state says schools “shall ensure” students be addressed by their preferred names and pronouns, be allowed to dress “in accordance with their gender identity” and that “parental consent is not required” for the district to accept the student’s “asserted gender identity.”
“School policies that single out or target LGBTQ+ youth fly in the face of our State’s longstanding commitment to equality,” Sundeep Iyer, director of the Attorney General’s Division on Civil Rights, said in a statement. “Our laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression, plain and simple, and we will not waver in our commitment to enforcing those protections.”
Marc Zitomer, an attorney for Marlboro’s school board, told Politico in a statement that “we vehemently disagree with Attorney General’s argument that it is somehow discriminatory or improper to notify a parent that their minor child is changing their gender identity or expression.”
“It is our position that keeping parents in the dark about important issues involving their children is counterintuitive and contrary to well established U.S. Supreme Court case law that says that parents have a constitutional right to direct and control the upbringing of their children,” Zitomer added.
Reportedly, each school district makes exceptions to the parental notification policy if there is reason to believe that doing so would put the student in harm’s way.
Townhall has covered several instances of school districts across the country attempting to keep parents out of the loop when it comes to their child’s gender identity, including in Colorado, Virginia, Kansas, Ohio and California. Last year, Republican Sen. Tim Scott (SC), who is running for the White House in 2024, introduced legislation that would prevent schools from hiding information about a student’s gender identity from their parents.
“The law in the United States has long recognized the importance of parental rights. A parent’s right to oversee the care education of their child is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment,” the bill said. “Parents have a fundamental, constitutionally guaranteed right to raise and educate their children in the way they choose.”
“Public schools across the country are violating these fundamental parental and familial rights by deliberately hiding information about gender transitioning from their parents,” it continued. “These schools are sabotaging the parent-child relationship and encouraging children to keep secrets from the adults who are charged with protecting and defending them – their parents.”
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