Parental rights at core of Leon County gender incongruence case

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(The Center Square) – Concealment of conversations between a student and a public school in Florida took away a portion of the parents’ right to upbringing, says a supporting brief for the parents in a case appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A ruling in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta sided with the school board in Leon County. The parents of a 12-year-old girl said they were not told she wanted to transition from female to male.

In a brief filed Monday, lawyers write, “It should go without saying, but parents cannot obtain a professional evaluation, screen for dysphoria and other coexisting issues, or provide professional mental health support for their children, if their school hides from them what is happening at school.”

The brief was filed in what is known as January Littlejohn and Jeffrey Littlejohn v. School Board of Leon County, Florida, et al. The Liberty Justice Center, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, and the California Justice Center did the filing on behalf of Dr. Erica Anderson, a clinical psychologist regularly working in gender identity cases.

Anderson says proper care for children “experiencing gender incongruence” requires parents’ engagement.

The brief cites the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year in Mahmoud v. Taylor protecting parental rights.

The Liberty Justice Center says it is “a national nonprofit law firm that challenges government overreach and fights for free speech, educational freedom and workers’ rights – at no cost to our clients or taxpayers.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty bills itself as a nonprofit that “advances the public interest in the rule of law, individual liberty, constitutional government, and a robust civil society.”

The California Justice Center is an arm of the nonprofit California Policy Center with a mission “to restore citizen control of government in line with constitutional principles.”