News Release
For Immediate Release: 9.24.24
Contact: Peyton Drew, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Parents File Lawsuit After Elementary School Denies Request for Notification and Opt-Out From Gender Ideology Book
Fifth-grade students forced to teach kindergartners about book, My Shadow is Pink, violating their religious beliefs.
San Diego, CA—First Liberty Institute and The National Center for Law & Policy filed a complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California urging the court to require Encinitas Union School District to provide notification and opt-outs to parents and students when promoting gender ideology.
You can read the complaint here.
Dean Broyles, President of the National Center for Law & Policy said, “Parents have the right to know what their children are being taught in school, especially when that material goes against their sincerely held religious beliefs. The District is attempting to evade state law that allows parents to opt their children out of sexual education by teaching the same material in other classes.”
“No child should be forced to speak a message that violates his religious convictions,” said Kayla Toney, Associate Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “It is unconscionable that teachers would force Christian elementary students to teach five-year-olds about gender identity in a way that violates their faith.”
In May 2024, a fifth-grade teacher at La Costa Heights Elementary School read aloud the book, My Shadow is Pink, which urges children to question their own gender identity. The book features a boy who sees his shadow as pink, which the book describes as “your inner-most you.” He then wears a dress to school and his dad changes his beliefs and puts on a dress too. The children in this case were forced to watch a read-aloud video of the book with their kindergartener “buddy” as part of the school’s mentoring program. Then they had to ask the kindergartner what color “represents” him and draw the kindergartener’s shadow in chalk. When the parents requested notice and opt-outs from similar teaching in the future, the school district denied their requests.
In the complaint, attorneys state, “By denying Plaintiff Parents’ requests for advance notice and opt-outs from teaching that violates their Christian faith, and by insisting that religious children participate in activities that promote gender identity in violation of their faith, the School District is willfully disregarding and violating their First Amendment right to direct the religious upbringing of their children.”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact Peyton Drew at media@firstliberty.org.
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