(The Center Square) – Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne applauded a recent ruling by the Arizona Court of Appeals that allows a parent to sue Mesa Public Schools after the district did not inform a parent that their child sought to change their gender.
In Walden v. Mesa Unified School District, Jane Doe, a parent, and Rachel Walden, a Mesa County School Board member, sued the district over its policy that hides children’s gender transition from parents.
Doe alleged that Mesa County Public Schools violated the state’s Parents’ Bill of Rights by concealing information about her daughter’s use of a male name and identity at school. School policy prevented teachers and officials from hiding information from parents when students make a transition to another gender, the ruling noted.
Arizona’s Parental Bill of Rights reserves exclusive rights to parents of children under 18, giving them authority over their children and restricting when the government can interfere in their rights. Some of these rights include “right to direct the education of the minor child,” “right to direct the upbringing of the minor child” and “right to direct the moral or religious training of the minor child.”
The court ruled last month that these parental rights outlined in Arizona law allow Doe to move forward in her lawsuit against Arizona’s largest school district. Maricopa County Superior Court initially dismissed the lawsuit.
Horne said schools can’t act as “substitutes for parents, and they have zero right to withhold information that parents are entitled to know.”
“I am very pleased that the court made the correct ruling to defend parental rights and remind schools they should follow the law or risk legal action,” said the superintendent, who talked to The Center Square this week.
James Rogers, senior counsel at America First Legal, who represented the plaintiffs, said, “Arizona law puts parents, not school bureaucrats, in charge of their children’s upbringing, education, and mental health, and districts must answer when they cross that line.”
“Parents have the God-given right — and responsibility — to raise and nurture their children. Government schools should never try to secretly usurp that role,” he added. “Teachers and administrators should not deceive parents or hide critical information about their children’s welfare.”
According to Horne, parents “have a right to know what’s happening with their children.”
Imagine being a parent and finding out that “your child had changed genders without telling you and that the school had helped and kept it secret,” Horne told The Center Square.
“You’d be outraged, and you’d be very hurt,” he said. “Children are the most important thing in the world to their parents.”
Horne noted it is “hard to say” how often kids make a transition in genders in Arizona public schools and their parents aren’t notified. However, he did say that when this situation comes to his attention, Horne will call the school and threaten to publicize it if the school doesn’t stop. After these conversations, schools comply, he said.
Horne said he has made “some, but “not a lot” of those phone calls.
On top of this, if the superintendent finds out that teachers are helping kids change their gender, he said he would propose to the state of Arizona that the teachers should lose their teaching license. He said that hasn’t happened yet in Arizona when teachers help students make a gender transition.
