A New Jersey judge has issued a temporary block on three school districts from implementing policies that would notify parents if their child is transitioning genders.
The Democratic New Jersey Attorney General, Matthew Platkin, filed a lawsuit against the Middletown Township, Marlboro Township, and Manalapan-Englishtown Regional boards of education in June after they voted to adopt policies requiring educators to inform parents if their child expresses a desire to change their gender. New Jersey Superior Court Judge David F. Bauman granted a preliminary injunction against these policies, preventing the school districts from notifying parents about their child's gender transitions.
According to NJ.com, Judge Bauman stated in his opinion, "The state has demonstrated a reasonable probability of success on its claim that the Amended Policies, if implemented, will have a disparate impact on transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary youth." The state argued that these policies violated New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination, which prohibits schools from treating students differently based on their gender identity and expression. The state's Department of Education's Transgender Student Guidance also emphasizes that schools should accept a student's asserted gender identity and that parental consent is not required for a student to transition at school.
Attorney General Platkin, in a press release, clarified that the state is not targeting parental rights but rather seeking to reinstate policies that were previously accepted by the districts without much protest. Platkin stated, "Put simply, we can both keep parents informed about their children's development and protect the civil rights of our most vulnerable students. Our laws require nothing less."
Similar policies to those challenged in the lawsuit have been adopted by school boards across the country. The Murrieta Valley School Board in California, for example, enacted a policy on August 10 that would notify parents if their child is transitioning genders. In response, Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an investigation into the Chino Unified School District after they adopted a policy requiring educators to inform parents if their child requests to change their gender at school.
The attorney for the Marlboro school board, Marc Zitomer, expressed concern about the limitations imposed by the injunction, stating, "In the meantime, the school district is now severely constrained in its ability to notify parents about important issues involving their minor children, which is quite concerning on many levels. We are exploring our avenues for appeal."
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