Judge Halts California Gender Identity School Notification Policy
A federal district judge has blocked a 2025 California policy that limited teachers’ rights to inform parents when their children suffer gender confusion at school.
In a class-action lawsuit initiated by two teachers who cited their Christianity in seeking to inform parents of such confusion, U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez ruled the policy unconstitutional and blocked it with a permanent injunction Dec. 22.
The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission applauded the victory for parental rights.
“Parents do not give up their God-given rights and responsibilities when they put their children on the school bus or drop them off in the carpool line,” ERLC Interim President Gary Hollingsworth told Baptist Press. “As the Bible teaches, Southern Baptists have consistently affirmed that it is parents who have the responsibility to teach their children spiritual and moral values – not the state. Time and time again, the Supreme Court has agreed with that position.”
California’s parental exclusion policy is also disrespectful, Hollingsworth said.
“California’s attempt to enforce a policy rooted in lying and secrecy speaks volumes about its respect for parents, teachers, and students” Hollingsworth said. “Further, California ignored conscience protection and free speech considerations for teachers who might refuse to accept lying to parents as essential to the duties of their job.”
Judge Benitez commended the school district’s intent to protect children from “harassment and discrimination,” but cited parental exclusion policies’ “trifecta of harm” to children, parents and teachers in his ruling in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of California.
“They harm the child who needs parental guidance and possibly mental health intervention to determine if the incongruence is organic or whether it is the result of bullying, peer pressure, or a fleeting impulse,” Benitez wrote. “They harm the parents by depriving them of the long-recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to care, guide, and make healthcare decisions for their children, and by substantially burdening many parents’ First Amendment right to train their children in their sincerely held religious beliefs.
“And finally, they harm teachers who are compelled to violate the sincerely held beliefs and the parent’s rights by forcing them to conceal information they feel is critical for the welfare of their students.”
The ruling halts the enforcement of parental exclusion rules in public schools across California, but leaves such rules in place in at least 35 other states, according to watchdog groups. Only eight states protect parental rights in such circumstances, according to the groups’ research.
Hollingsworth expressed hope that the ruling is respected nationally.
“We applaud this win for both teachers who do not want to compromise their religious and ethical convictions for the sake of their career and for parents who refuse to let the state be the ones to raise their children,” Hollingsworth said. “We pray this precedent expands across the country to every classroom where children are being encouraged into accepting a false gender ideology that harmfully deceives them and their parents.”
Benitez ruled in the class-action lawsuit initiated by California teachers Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, who objected to the policy that required a child’s consent before the teachers could inform parents of gender confusion, and required teachers to address students by preferred pronouns. At least two other teachers and two sets of parents joined the lawsuit as a class action, their attorneys at Thomas More Society said in a press release.
“They never sought to be the face of this fight, yet their courage has transformed the lives of families and educators not only in California but perhaps the entire country,” Peter Breen, Thomas More executive vice president and head of litigation, said of the plaintiffs. “We will always defend the religious freedom of teachers and families and ensure that parents retain their constitutional right to raise their children in alignment with their families’ values.”
Mirabelli and West have been reinstated to their teaching posts in the Escondido Union School District near San Diego after a paid administrative leave surpassing six months, Vision Christian Media reported.
Movement Advancement Project (MAP), which describes itself as an independent nonprofit group promoting equality for all, said in a December 2025 analysis that 85 percent of LGBTQ students – and their parents – live in states where a student’s gender confusion is encouraged to be withheld from parents. The report was based on data last updated as recently as June 2025, MAP said in its report.
At least 35 states, U.S. territories and Washington D.C. do not require schools to report a child’s gender confusion to parents, MAP noted, while at least eight states protect a parent’s right to know. Among those, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia require schools to notify parents of such; while Alabama and North Dakota require schools to disclose such data only at parents’ request.
The conservative grassroots group Defending Education noted in April 2025 that including California, parental exclusion policies impact 1,215 school districts in 37 states, with school enrollment surpassing 12.3 million.
This article has been republished with permission from Baptist Press.
Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.