Arizona's Court of Appeals has ruled that parents can sue public schools when districts fail to inform them of their child's gender identity changes at school, a decision State Superintendent Tom Horne is celebrating.
The unanimous ruling allows a lawsuit against Mesa Public Schools to move forward, brought by a mother who discovered her daughter had been using a different name and pronouns at school without her knowledge.
"Schools are not substitutes for parents and they have zero right to withhold information that parents are entitled to know," Horne stated in response to the decision. He emphasized that state law protects parental rights in these situations.
Horne added that the court made "the correct ruling to defend parental rights and remind schools they should follow the law or risk legal action."
He specifically praised the court for affirming that schools must notify parents "when a child expresses a desire to be identified as a sex other than the one to which they were born."
Background on Case
The case involves a Mesa mother, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, whose daughter, Megan, also under a pseudonym, began using the name Michael at her junior high school.
School staff knew about the name change but avoided entering it into the district's electronic system, which would have automatically alerted Doe.
When Doe met with the principal in December 2022, she learned that staff had intentionally concealed this information from her. The principal explained it was official district policy not to inform parents about such changes.
According to court documents, Doe requested that teachers use her daughter's given name, but most continued using Michael instead. Only after Doe became aware of the situation and could discuss it with her daughter did the issues resolve, the lawsuit states.
The court determined that Doe has the right to challenge whether Mesa's policies violated Arizona's Parents' Bill of Rights.
“I am very pleased that the Court made the correct ruling to defend parental rights and remind schools they should follow the law or risk legal action,” Horne concluded.
