What the Supreme Court ruling on gender identity means for students, parents, and schools

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The Supreme Court’s ruling Monday affirming the right of parents to know about their child’s gender identity at school has left California educators with complicated questions about how to protect the sometimes competing rights of students, school employees and family members.The Supreme Court decision in Mirabelli v.Bonta, while falling short of explicitly deciding the case, will have a sweeping impact because the court majority strongly agreed with a lower court’s interpretation of parent rights that differs from common practice in California.“Ultimately, the issues are about the right of parents to be informed as opposed to the ability of the state to protect the privacy rights of children,” UC Berkeley law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky said.

“The Court, 6-3, comes down in favor of the former.”The court majority sided with U.S.District Judge Roger Benitez, based in San Diego County, and against an appellate panel that stayed Benitez’s ruling pending the outcome of an appeal.

The Supreme Court action allows crucial portions of Benitez’s ruling to go into effect while the appeals process plays out.Politics The Supreme Court majority said the student privacy policy enforced in California infringes on parents’ rights and the free exercise of religion.In his Dec.

22 decision, Benitez ruled that parents have a federal constitutional right to know of LGBTQ+ issues affecting their children at school.Moreover, he said teachers had free speech and freedom-of-religion rights to tell parents about their child’s gender-identity issues if the teacher wanted to do so.

The case originated with teachers who were trying to assert such a right.Parents joined the lawsuit later.The Supreme Court did not lift the stay related to employees.

So, it’s not clear what teachers have the right to say to parents who don’t inquire about the issue, legal experts said.However, ...