Dad sues school district for denying religious opt-out for young son during Pride Month lesson
A Washington father is suing his son’s public school district after he said his 10-year-old was taught about gender surgery during a Pride Month lesson despite the Christian parent previously asking the school to excuse his child from LGBTQ-related instruction.On Tuesday, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the father, Konstantin Averkiev, filed a federal lawsuit against Lake Washington School District, alleging officials violated Averkiev’s First and 14th Amendment rights by refusing to provide notice and allow his son to opt out of LGBTQ-related lessons and other school requirements that conflict with his religious beliefs.The dispute began after Averkiev said he met with his son’s fourth-grade teacher at Henry David Thoreau Elementary School in September 2025 and requested advance notice and an opt-out from lessons involving LGBTQ topics, gender identity or gender transition.According to the complaint, the teacher agreed, but Averkiev subsequently found out his son had been taught a June Pride Month lesson that allegedly included a classroom discussion of gender-change surgery.The teacher then said he remembered Averkiev’s request and told him he “should have sent the lessons ahead of time,” according to messages cited in the lawsuit.However, Averkiev said that the district later rejected nearly all of his broader opt-out requests as his son prepared to enter fifth grade.The Pride Month presentation, taught to fourth and fifth-grade students, described same-sex attraction, transgender identity and the Stonewall uprising, a series of protests from people who identified as LGBTQ+ against a police raid on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village, according to materials cited in the complaint.Averkiev also alleged the classroom discussion went further than just the slides.
His son told him the class had discussed gender-change surgery, meaning the father argues he would not have known the subje...