Pennsylvania school won't hide gender 'transitions' from parents after secret database was exposed

A Pennsylvania school system has agreed to rescind a policy forcing teachers and staff to keep parents in the dark about whether their child is being referred to by opposite-sex pronouns and names at school.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal group, announced Monday that the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) agreed to drop the policy on LGBT students. This follows a letter ADF and the Independence Law Center (ILC) sent to CCIU officials on behalf of a client connected to Brandywine Virtual Academy.

ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer said that there is “growing psychiatric evidence that affirming a child’s gender dysphoria at school by using incorrect pronouns and names sets a vulnerable child down a path with lifelong consequences.”

“Children across the country have suffered for too long because of the lies of gender ideology,” Langhofer added. “Schools must cease participating in this dangerous experimentation on kids and respect the right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and healthcare of their children.”

In May, ADF and ILC sent a letter to CCIU Executive Director George F. Fiore about Policy 103.2. The policy requires school staff to “not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation to others, including the student’s parents/guardians and/or other Intermediate Unit personnel, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure.”

“Transgender and gender nonconforming students have the right to discuss and express their gender identity and expression openly and to decide when, with whom, and how much to share such private information,” the policy states.

“The Intermediate Unit does not condone the intentional and/or persistent refusal to respect a student’s consistently asserted gender identity, or inappropriate release of information regarding a student’s transgender or gender nonconforming status. Such conduct shall be a violation of this Board policy.”

The policy required staff to use a student’s preferred name and pronouns, which critics contend violates the First and 14th Amendments. The district also maintained a school database noting whether a parent knew about their child’s transition at school, according to ADF. This enabled staff to know whether they should hide information about the child's preferred name and pronouns from their parents. 

According to the legal groups, any staff member who disobeyed the policy faced disciplinary action.

In their letter, the legal groups argued that Policy 103.2 “violates the free speech rights and religious freedom of any staff member who objects on religious or other grounds to being compelled to use a name or pronoun that does not correspond with a child’s sex.”

They also argued that the policy “interferes with the parental rights of any parent who gives specific instructions about the use of pronouns for their child because it requires CCIU staff to ignore that instruction.”

“Consequently, through this practice, the District unlawfully interferes with the parents’ fundamental rights to make decisions concerning the upbringing and care of their child,” the groups wrote.

“We respectfully request that you immediately rescind policy 103.2 as provisions contained therein violate the Constitution. Second, we request that you inform teachers in writing that any previous written and oral instruction to keep gender identification confidential from the minor’s parents/guardians is to be disregarded.”

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 unsigned opinion in Mirabelli v. Bonta that ruled against a similar policy in California public schools.

A 2023 report from the advocacy group Parents Defending Education stated that more than 1,000 school districts across the country attended by over 10 million students had adopted policies permitting or advising personnel to withhold information from parents about their child's desire to identify as trans or nonbinary.