Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) issued a press release announcing the Waukesha County Circuit Court decision that Kettle Moraine School District’s policy was a violation of parents’ rights. The district’s policy was to encourage staff to refer to students with changed names and pronouns without informing parents of the decision.
In November of 2021, a lawsuit was filed against the school district, T.F. and B.F. v. Kettle Moraine School District. It was caused by parents of a student within the district who was struggling with “gender dysphoria,” and who was eventually removed from the district by their parents because the district did not abide by the parents’ instructions regarding their child after they had sought help from a professional mental health center. According to the press release from ADF, they were joined by another set of parents in the district who also felt that the district’s behavior violated parental rights.
In February of 2023, the Waukesha County Circuit Court denied Kettle Moraine’s motion to dismiss the case, after which the parents asked the Court to rule in favor of parental rights. The decision affirmed their request at the beginning of October. The Court wrote in their opinion that making any decisions for a child’s care without parental consent was “impinging on a fundamental liberty interest of the parents.”
“Parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children is one of the most basic constitutional rights every parent holds dear,” said director of the ADF Center for Parental Rights Kate Anderson in the press release. “Yet we are seeing more and more school districts across the country not only ignoring parents’ concerns but actively working against them. The court was right to respect the serious concerns of these parents by holding that Kettle Moraine School District’s policy, which undermines parents and harms children, violates the Wisconsin Constitution.”
