Social worker sues after she says she refused to conceal students gender transitions from parents
A New Mexico social worker is suing Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) over a policy she says requires school personnel to conceal students' gender transitions from their parents.The Center for American Liberty filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Jeanette Martinez, a licensed clinical social worker.Martinez said the district is forcing her to keep parents in the dark regarding their children's social gender transitions, violating her First Amendment rights to free speech and religious freedom.Martinez, who has worked as a social worker for more than a decade, supports special-education students at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School.
Her role requires routine communication with parents regarding academic, behavioral, and special-education needs.As a practicing Christian, Martinez said her deeply held religious convictions prohibit her from lying or intentionally concealing the truth.BLUE STATE SCHOOL DISTRICT ACCUSED OF DEFYING SUPREME COURT, HIDING GENDER TRANSITIONS FROM PARENTSSchool safety programs are collecting students' emails, messages, and web activity on their personal devices.
(Sebastian Willnow/picture alliance via Getty Images)"There was an incident that I was present for where, within two hours, a student verbally decided he was male and wanted to be female," Martinez told Fox News Digital."Within that meeting, a school team decided right then that because he expressed wanting to be the opposite sex, they would go ahead and choose his new name as the opposite sex.""They even decided how they were going to introduce his new name to his classmates," Martinez added, noting that school officials also discussed training first-grade students on how to interact with a classmate identifying as the opposite gender.Under APS Procedural Directive PJ30, staff are instructed to use a student's preferred name and pronouns for internal records, documents and interactions.
However, when communicating with parents unless the student or parent has specified ...