Supreme Court Punts on Parental Rights Case of School District Concealing Gender Transition

The Supreme Court on Monday opted not to hear a gender secrecy case out of Florida, in which parents objected to a policy that kept their child’s school from informing them of a gender transition.

The case involves the School Board of Leon County, Florida, which in 2018 said that when students informed their school’s administration that they would assert a different gender identity, the school would treat students consistent with that gender identity. The plan said that school administrators revealing this to parents could be dangerous to the well-being of a student, CBS News reported. 

In March, the high court held that California couldn’t require school districts to withhold such information from parents.

In 2021, Florida enacted a statewide “Parents’ Bill of Rights” that included prohibiting public schools from keeping such information secret from parents. Leon County schools revised their policy in 2022 to comply with the law. 

Before that, the student at the center of the case—known as A.G. in court papers—told her parents, January and Jeffrey Littlejohn, that she wanted to change her name to “J” and use they/them pronouns. The parents didn’t agree on the pronouns, but permitted her to use J.  

The Littlejohns’ daughter, who attended a middle school in Tallahassee, Florida, reportedly told a school counselor she wanted to be nonbinary, having they/them pronouns. The counselor, social worker, and principal then met with her to plan an accommodation that included her preferred name and pronouns. The school officials didn’t tell the parents, who learned about the meeting from their daughter several days later. 

The parents told the school to stop meeting privately with their daughter and treating her as nonbinary. They were later given a copy of the transition support plan.

The parents sued the school board in 2021, alleging that their rights were violated. This lawsuit predated the Florida statute. 

A trial court dismissed the case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled the Littlejohns failed to satisfy the standard for proving a violation of their substantive due process rights.