Paused: A court ruling that let teachers tell parents about a child's 'gender incongruity'

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A court order giving California teachers full freedom to tell parents about their child’s gender identity at school is on hold after an appellate panel blocked it from going into immediate effect.Had the three-member panel not acted, the ruling, by a federal district judge, would have required immediate changes to policies at hundreds of school systems up and down the state.According to data cited in the original ruling, at least 598 of the state’s 1,000 school systems have policies restricting what parents can be told about their child’s gender expression at school — if the child requests confidentiality.Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second-largest school system, is among these school districts.

California School workers can alert parents if their child has questions about gender, but officials can’t order staff to alert parents.It’s a confusing new legal landscape.Across the state, “the policies apply to children as young as two and as old as seventeen,” U.S.

District Judge Roger Benitez wrote in his Dec.22 ruling.

“The policies do not permit teachers to use their own judgment in responding to an inquiring parent.Unless the child consents, the teacher who communicates about a child’s gender incongruity faces adverse employment action.”Benitez gave state officials 20 days to show that they had notified school districts that such policies are illegal under the U.S.

Constitution.The appellate court’s stay pauses that order while the case continues through the court system.The latest action does not resolve the case — nor does it reverse the original ruling.

But the appellate judges warned that their stay of the original ruling is based on serious potential flaws in the legal analysis of the San Diego-based Benitez.In his ruling and an accompanying order, Benitez ruled that teachers had free speech and freedom-of-religion rights to tell parents o...