(The Center Square) – Nonprofit legal group Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to one of the largest school districts in the U.S. demanding that it stop gender transitioning one of its students without the knowledge or consent of her parents.
“Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to Houston Independent School District officials … seeking confirmation they have stopped treating one couple’s daughter as a boy – a so-called ‘social transition’ of the girl, who is a student in the district – and requesting that it provide documents to the couple,” ADF said in a news release.
ADF is “the world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family, and parental rights,” according to its website.
When reached for comment, Houston Independent School District (HISD) Board Services told The Center Square that its “inquiry has been forwarded to the administration for handling.”
No other response from HISD has been received.
Serving nearly 200,000 students at 274 campuses, HISD is the largest school district in Texas and the eighth-largest in the nation, according to its website.
According to the letter sent from the ADF to HISD, the student was transitioned “without notifying [her parents] or seeking their consent.”
Legal counsel for ADF Laurence Wilkinson told The Center Square that “no school district should hide information from parents about their children or undermine parents’ instructions on how to resolve mental health issues that their child is facing.”
“When schools exclude parents from information and decision-making, children get hurt,” Wilkinson said.
“We sent this demand letter to Houston ISD to ensure that our clients’ directions about how their daughter is treated at school are being respected, and to ensure that the district provides documents to the parents to help them understand what has been happening at school,” Wilkinson said.
ADF stated in its release that “in December 2023, the Houston family discovered a masculine name on their daughter’s school work and learned that HISD employees had been treating her as a boy for several months.”
“They instructed the employees to immediately stop,” the release said. “Although employees initially agreed, the parents later discovered employees had repeatedly ignored their instructions.”
“In a 2024 meeting with the principal of their daughter’s school, the principal did not immediately assure the parents that employees would stop,” ADF’s release said. “Instead, he suggested the parents should explore a ‘middle ground’ solution.”
“ADF is requesting that the school provide clear confirmation that the couple’s daughter will be referred to by her given name and correct pronouns, as well as provide documents related to the events that occurred,” the release said.
Laurence Wilkinson told The Center Square that “we are seeing school districts across the country pursue policies that require teachers and other school employees to lie to parents about their children’s mental health or struggles with their sex.”
“Pushing ‘social transition’ (which includes going by names and pronouns of the opposite sex) is a major intervention in a child’s life that puts the child on a difficult-to-escape pathway to harmful, medicalized transition, and carries the risk of life-long harm,” Wilkinson said.
“Schools should be fully transparent with parents about what is happening with their children at school,” Wilkinson said.
“Our clients and other parents have the right to direct the education, upbringing, and wellbeing of their children,” Wilkinson said. “We hope HISD will take the opportunity to affirm that right.”
ADF senior counsel Kate Anderson, director of ADF’s Center for Parental Rights, said in the news release that parents should have the right to parent “without fear of government interference.”
“School officials should support parents, not replace them, which is why we’re insisting that the school confirm they are respecting these parents’ constitutional rights,” Anderson said.
