Court Sides With Mother Against School District’s Transgender Policy

An appeals court has sided in favor of a mother in a complaint against her child’s school district for imposing transgender policies.

The case concerns the Pine-Richland School District in Pennsylvania, which in 2017 passed a policy providing “equal opportunity” to all students regardless of personal characteristics, including “gender identity,” according to an April 23 ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

The policy prohibited district staff from disclosing a student’s gender status to other people, including the child’s parents or guardians, unless it is legally necessary or the student has authorized such disclosure, the court document said.

Each school was required to have a student support team that would meet with students who wished to change their gender identity during the school year to discuss a timeline for the “transition.”

The mother, whose name was withheld, is the plaintiff in the case, while the child was a student in the district school for the 2023–24 school year.

According to the document, after the mother became concerned about the school’s policy, she contacted authorities, asking them to notify her regarding any gender dysphoria or “gender identity” issues concerning her child.

She also requested the authorities not to refer her child to social workers or mental health counselors for evaluation.

The school district refused her requests, saying it would provide such notification only if legally required, the court document said.

Subsequently, in January 2024, the mother filed a lawsuit against the district for damages and prospective relief. She withdrew her child from the school in July 2024 and filed an updated complaint in September that year. The district court dismissed the lawsuit in full for lack of standing, and the case went to the appeals court.

In a filing with the appeals court, the school district’s legal representative argued that the plaintiff’s case was dismissed because she “lacked the injury required” and was not an object of the district’s policy.

The appeals court issued different judgments on the two claims made by the plaintiff.

Regarding the mother’s claim for prospective relief, the appeals court observed that the plaintiff had withdrawn her child from the school before she filed the updated complaint in September 2024. As such, the court ruled that the plaintiff did not demonstrate standing to seek prospective relief and dismissed the claim.

But for the claim on damages, the court took the mother’s side.

At the time of the plaintiff’s alleged injury during the 2023–24 school year, “she (1) was the parent of a child in a District school; (2) as such, was the object of the District’s Policy; and (3) demanded that the District not apply the Policy to her,” the court document said.

As such, the appeals court reversed the district court’s dismissal of the damages claim, allowing the mother to pursue it further.

In an April 23 statement, America First Legal (AFL), which handles the case on behalf of the mother, said the district school’s policy had required schools to address students by their preferred pronouns, name, and gender; permit them to use whichever bathroom they wanted; and allow them to take part in a sports team that aligned with their “identity.”

AFL called it a “historic victory” in the fight to hold school districts accountable for providing “gender transition teams,” funded by taxpayers, to children without parental consent or notification.

The Epoch Times reached out to Pine-Richland School District for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

School Transgender Policies

The ruling in the case comes as the Trump administration’s Department of Education (ED) has taken strict action against transgender policies in educational institutions.

On April 17, the ED said it had found four Kansas school districts to be in violation of Title IX and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act regulations.

“The Districts had policies that were likely to prevent schools from notifying parents of their child’s so-called ‘gender transition,’ even if the parent requested their child’s records, thereby violating parents’ rights,” the department said.

“The Districts’ policies allow schools to conceal from parents whether their children are using different pronouns, going by different names, or even having different names printed on their diplomas.”

The ED sent resolution agreements to the school districts, demanding they commit to providing parents with material related to their child’s “gender transition.”

Earlier, on April 6, the department announced that it was rescinding resolution agreements made by previous administrations with several school districts regarding the enforcement of Title IX laws related to “gender identity.”

Title IX bans discrimination on the basis of sex in any program or activity that receives federal funding. The agreements required schools to take specific steps to address Title IX violations. However, the previous administration “distorted the law” to police discrimination on the basis of “gender identity” rather than sex, according to the department.

Doing so burdened school districts with Title IX violations for actions such as asking questions about a student’s preferred gender or the improper use of preferred pronouns, it said.

“Title IX protections are based on sex, therefore, these districts are not in violation of the law and are freed from these terms of the resolution agreements,” the ED said.