OPINION:
Your kids are not your own. That seems to be the message emanating from some of our public school systems, where administrators and leaders create problematic policies that drive a wedge between parents and their children.
And for the time being, it seems there won’t be any federal reprieve from this unholy quagmire, as the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear Parents Protecting Our Children, UA v. Eau Claire Area School District, an important case that would have forced justices to deal with these pernicious parental rights matters.
The legal battle was brought by parents who say the Eau Claire Area School District in Wisconsin implemented a policy in 2021 that mandates teachers hide trans-identified students’ gender proclivities from pupils’ parents.
As The Washington Times’ Alex Swoyer explained, gender transitions could thus be pursued “without parental consent” and that the “policy guidance noted that parental knowledge must be earned.”
Under the district’s “Administrative Guidance for Gender Identity Support,” school personnel create a “Student Gender Support Plan” that addresses restroom use, athletics and other important pupil experiences and elements.
“The parents challenged the policy, but the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said they lacked standing — meaning a sufficient legal injury — to bring the case,” Ms. Swoyer wrote. “They had argued that the policy interferes with their constitutional right to rear their children.”
The parents’ sensible complaint — and the reality that these cases place school personnel in a troubling, potentially truth-eroding spot between children and their parents — has been dismissed by the courts, with the Supreme Court putting the final nail in the complainants’ coffins.
It’s not clear why the court opted not to hear this case, though the decision should send chills down the spine of any loving parent. The nonsensical and flat-out evil notion that parents who care for, raise and hold responsibility for their children would lose their right to know about such sensitive information is inexcusable and absolutely terrifying.
That parents could send their children into the public school system and somehow cede their right to the assurance of the children’s well-being is a deplorable and un-American notion.
Yet this is the situation where we seemingly find ourselves, with hundreds of school districts nationwide already crafting or implementing such policies — efforts that send a covert message to children that they can evade parents and transition genders without their consent.
In a poignant dissent addressing the court’s decision not to review the 7th Circuit’s decision on the matter, Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas made it clear they disagreed and believe the matter concerns “a question of great and growing national importance.”
“The 7th Circuit suggested that a parent could not challenge the district’s policy unless the parent could show that his or her child is transitioning or considering a transition,” they wrote. “But the challenged policy and associated equity training specifically encourage school personnel to keep parents in the dark about the ‘identities’ of their children, especially if the school believes that the parents would not support what the school thinks is appropriate.
“Thus, the parents’ fear that the school district might make decisions for their children without their knowledge and consent is not ‘speculative.’ They are merely taking the school district at its word,” the justices said.
These justices hit the real issue out of the park, explaining that the mere threat to parental rights is an issue worthy of exploration.
It’s remarkable to consider that the parents who brought this case would need to prove harm — that one of their kids would essentially need to be trans-identifying or considering a transition — to have standing to sue when the nature of a school district stepping into a guardianship role and icing parents out is a diabolical problem in and of itself.
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh joined Justices Alito and Thomas in stating he would have heard the case, but the trio needed one more justice for a full review to unfold.
The Supreme Court’s decision not to adjudicate this issue is disappointing, especially at a time when many parents are deeply concerned about what’s being taught and disseminated in our public schools. Ultimately, it is up to parents — not district leaders, teachers or other school personnel — to care for the minds, bodies and souls of their children.
The bizarre notion that a school district cannot give a child Tylenol without parental consent but could somehow legally conceal a child’s decision to identify as another gender defies all rightfulness and logic.
Fortunately, this issue isn’t going anywhere, and the court will certainly have other opportunities to consider similar situations. Let’s hope one such battle soon makes its way before the justices so that sanity, ethics and parental rights can triumph.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” He is the author of four books.
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