(Credit: Katie Rainbow | Pexels)
School leaders said Williams had the discretion to teach the books but said afterward that parents could opt out of “controversial subjects."
A federal court has ruled that a Pennsylvania first-grade teacher violated the rights of parents by teaching them about transgender identity during instruction related to Transgender Awareness Day.
The court ruled late last month that teacher Megan Williams violated the law by reading extracurricular books and telling students at Jefferson Elementary School that “when children are born, parents make a guess whether they’re a boy or a girl. Sometimes parents are wrong.”
Leaders of Jefferson and the Mt. Lebanon School District were named in their official capacity in the lawsuit brought by parents with “religious and moral beliefs” that conflict with those posited by the transgender movement, reads the opinion by Judge Joy Flowers Conti.
Conti issued declaratory relief against the district, stating that parents have a right to determine whether their children receive notice about instruction on gender ideology and to remove their children from classes where such instruction may be taught.
“Absent a compelling governmental interest, parents have a constitutional right to reasonable and realistic advance notice and the ability to opt their elementary-age children out of noncurricular instruction on transgender topics and to not have requirements for notice and opting out for those topics that are more stringent than those for other sensitive topics,” Conti wrote.
In 2022, Williams read two books with transgender characters and themes called “When Aidan Became a Brother” and “Introducing Teddy, a gentle story about gender and friendship” for Transgender Awareness Day, according to court documents.
Jefferson Elementary School did not have the books listed as part of the curriculum, and officials had told parents that students do not have a “formal introduction or lessons” on gender identity.
According to the court opinion, Williams’ own child started using female pronouns “the same week that Williams read ‘Aidan’ and ‘Introducing Teddy’ to her first-grade class.”
According to Conti, students were confused after Williams explained her own child’s transition and read the books. One student became upset and responded, “But I’m a boy. I don’t want to be a girl.”
Williams said, “Yes, you are. Talk with your parents about that.”
The court document shows how school administrators fully supported Williams’ instruction and said the books were about kindness, empathy and acceptance. However, the books neither mention those terms nor depict bullying situations.
“The books introduce the first-grade students to cute, lovable transgender characters, who make the decision that they are a different gender than their sex, are affirmed in that belief by the other characters and recognize that parents may make mistakes about their children’s gender,” Conti wrote in her opinion.
School leaders said Williams had the discretion to teach the books but said afterward that parents could opt out of “controversial subjects. " However, the court found that the school did not create a written procedure governing how parents could receive advance notice and opt their children out of gender identity instruction.
Conti said giving teachers “unbridled discretion” is “constitutionally impermissible.”
“Refusing to allow notice and opt-outs for religious and fundamental parental rights objections to transgender topics, i.e., forcing young children to be exposed to particular instruction over the objections of unwilling parents, while permitting notice and opt-outs for other sensitive topics – is not neutral and constitutes an improper use of governmental authority,” Conti wrote.
• This story initially published at Chalkboard News, a K-12 news site that, like The Center Square, is also published by Franklin News Foundation.
