Parents sue school district after it hides their two kids’ ‘genderqueer’ and ‘trans’ status

Public school employees using “gender” to drive a wedge between students and their parents has exploded into the news in recent months. Now some Massachusetts parents have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that their school district violated their rights by getting secretly involved with their children’s thinking about genders and sex.

The April 12 lawsuit in U.S. District Court accuses the Ludlow School Committee and school administrators of using their position of trust to violate due process and religious freedom rights with their secretive gender identity policies. The plaintiffs are two sets of parents: Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, and Jonathan Feliciano and Sandra Salmeron.

Foote and Silvestri have two children, a biological girl who identifies as “genderqueer” and a biological boy who identifies as transgender, according to the suit. The parents allege that staffers and administrators at Paul L. Baird Middle School hid their children’s gender-nonconforming status and new pronouns, violating their parental rights.

Feliciano and Salmeron’s children are not specifically mentioned in the suit, but that set of parents alleges that the district’s gender identity policy violates their right to free exercise of religion. Their sincerely held religious beliefs require truthfulness, they say, as well as obedience to parents and the belief that human beings come into being as either male or female.

Named as a defendant in the suit is Ludlow Interim Superintendent Lisa Nemeth, who was contacted by DailyMail.com. Nemeth said the district’s policy is not to comment on pending litigation.

Ludlow School Committee Chairman James “Chip” Harrington also did not comment, except to refer to comments he made to MassLive saying he thinks parents should always have “a seat at the table” for important decisions for their children’s health.

How nice of “Chip” to offer parents “a seat at the table.” Darn nice.