News Release
For Immediate Release: 5.13.25
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Federal Court Orders Elementary School to Notify Parents, Provide Opt-Outs from Gender Ideology Lessons
Fifth-grade students had been forced to teach kindergartners about book, My Shadow is Pink, violating their religious beliefs.
San Diego, CA—The United States District Court for the Southern District of California granted a motion for preliminary injunction requiring the Encinitas (CA) Union School District to provide notification and opt-outs to parents and students when promoting gender ideology in “buddy classes,” a mentoring program coupling older and younger students. First Liberty Institute and the National Center for Law & Policy filed a complaint and motion for preliminary injunction in September 2024.
You can read the decision here.
Dean Broyles, President of the National Center for Law & Policy said, “The court’s decision affirms that schools have a duty to notify parents and provide opt-outs when controversial gender ideology is taught, and they cannot avoid that duty by teaching the material in a mentoring program instead of health class.”
“No child should be forced to speak a message that violates his religious convictions,” said Nate Kellum, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “We are grateful for the court’s decision and will continue to fight to ensure that elementary children are not forced to participate in lessons about gender identity that violate 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 decision, the court concluded that “[c]ompelling individuals to mouth support for views they find objectionable violates the First Amendment,” highlighting the school’s “admission that the buddy program is a mandatory part of the Curriculum.” The court’s order instructs that “buddy program class activities and materials shall not cover gender identity topics covered in health instruction, unless Defendants provide parents with advance notice and an opportunity to opt out.”
###
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 John Manning at media@firstliberty.org.
 |
|
|
