California Officials Hid Truth About Secret Gender Transitions In Schools, Law Firm Says

California officials misled a federal judge about policies that hide students’ “gender transitions” from parents at schools, bombshell documents uncovered by a legal firm appear to show.

On Monday, California officials will appear before U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez for a show cause hearing to provide evidence on why they shouldn’t be sanctioned for attempting to mislead the court about state policies that would prohibit parents from being informed about their children’s supposed “gender identity.” The hearing is the latest saga in a multi-year challenge to school policies adopted in California that teachers say would force them to lie to parents about students suffering from gender dysphoria. 

“We now have irrefutable evidence that the [California Department of Education] covertly moved these unconstitutional gender secrecy directives inside a password-protected training hidden away from public view, and distributed them to school districts statewide,” said Paul Jonna, a lawyer with the Thomas More Society. Jonna is representing two teachers, Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori West, who sued the Escondido Union School District in 2023 over a policy that kept parents in the dark about their children’s so-called gender identity. 

The California Department of Education has argued that it should not be a party to the case because it claims not to have mandated parental exclusion. They claim that a frequently-asked-questions page posted by the department has been edited to show that they do not mandate parental exclusion, and so there is no more cause for complaint. The FAQ page included a line that said “with rare exceptions, schools are required to respect the limitations that a student places on the disclosure of their transgender status, including not sharing that information with the student’s parents.”

While that guidance was deleted, policies that kept parents in the dark about their children were still promoted in statewide teacher trainings.

Lawyers for the Thomas More Society obtained training materials developed by the state that appear to prove just that. The materials were found in California’s PRISM framework, which describes itself as “a six-course online training for certificated educators that provides resources to support LGBTQ+ youth.”

Currently, the materials are unavailable on the state’s website, but the Thomas More Society included them in a court filing. They can be viewed on a video uploaded to YouTube. 

Inside those materials is a section on “School Legal Responsibilities,” which it says includes mandates for “inclusive policies, respect for gender identity, anti-discrimination protections, and privacy rights.” It recommends and links to guidelines from the Our Family Coalition that say parents should be kept in the dark if they are not supportive.

“School staff must respect students’ right to privacy and may not affirmatively disclose a student’s LGBTQ status to others without the student’s permission,” the guidance from the San Francisco-based LGBT organization says. “Students have a right to privacy in personal information about their sexual orientation and gender identity, and outing students both at school or at home violates this right and also risks exposing students to harassment. If a student is not out at home, schools should offer them support for working towards family acceptance.”

Our Family Coalition.

The official teacher training also links to recommendations from the ACLU of Southern California that outline similar standards. 

“Generally, school staff cannot share information about your gender identity and sexual orientation without your permission, except under very limited circumstances, such as in case of an emergency,” the guidance says, adding that only in “limited circumstances” can school staff tell parents about their child’s gender identity. 

The PRISM training also linked to policies from the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network that stated, “School staff shall not disclose any information that may reveal a student’s transgender status to others, including parents or guardians.”

Jonna said the evidence that California officials attempted to mislead Benitez is damning. 

“The State claimed in court that it had rescinded the gender secrecy directives we are challenging,” he said. “But we now have evidence of a coordinated, statewide campaign to enforce Parental Exclusion Policies. The State Defendants are attempting to knowingly mislead a Federal Court in order to evade judicial review and prejudice Plaintiffs and the Certified Class. This is one of the most egregious attempts I’ve seen — if not the most — to mislead a Court, and it warrants severe sanctions.”

Benitez will also consider the constitutionality of “parental exclusion policies” on Monday. He has certified the case as a class action lawsuit, meaning that it will apply to any parent or teacher who objects to California’s policies. Those policies were put forth in California Assembly Bill 1955, which was signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom, and appears to require teachers to hide their students’ “gender identity” from parents. 

Benitez, an appointee of President George W. Bush, already granted an injunction to Mirabelli and West back in 2023, protecting them from having to abide by the policy. 

Defendants in the case include Newsom, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and gubernatorial candidate and California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. Bonta sued the Chino Valley Unified School District in August 2023 over a policy it implemented protecting parental rights to know how their children are identifying. 

Greg Burt, the vice president of the California Family Council, said that it appeared that the state was “scrambling” to hide its policies and that it looked like parents in the Golden State were going to pick up a win.

“We are very excited these two teachers, down in the San Diego area, stood up to the state and instead of just following what they were saying about keeping secrets they said they couldn’t do that,” he told The Daily Wire. “Their decision to be brave is going to have a positive, hopefully a positive effect on the entire state.”