A California family discovered their seventh-grade daughter had been socially transitioned to a boy at school for an entire year only after she attempted suicide. Teachers had used male pronouns in class and different pronouns when calling parents. School officials continued the deception even after the girl’s hospitalization, citing state law.
The Poe family’s daughter began identifying as a boy when she entered seventh grade at Clovis Unified School District in fall 2022. The Doe family faced similar concealment starting when their daughter was in fifth grade. Teachers hid the transitions from both sets of parents. When the Does confronted their daughter’s principal in seventh grade, he explained state law prohibited sharing information about gender identity without the child’s consent.
Two Escondido Union School District teachers discovered the scope of the problem in early 2023. Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West received a list of seven students transitioning genders. Six had parents who were unaware. The district required teachers to use one set of names and pronouns with students and a different set when calling parents. The teachers filed suit in April 2023.
Both the Poe and Doe families are Catholic. The Poes learned about their daughter’s year-long transition only when a doctor explained her gender dysphoria after the suicide attempt. The girl was rehospitalized months later because she remained at risk for self-harm. The Poes transferred her to a new school and explicitly instructed staff to notify them of any gender expression changes. Officials refused. The Does also transferred their daughter because they believed the risk was too great and private school was financially impossible.
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez granted a preliminary injunction for the two teachers in September 2023. The ruling protected them from being forced to deceive parents. California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued legal alerts claiming the injunction had no statewide effect. He threatened schools that chose transparency and sued districts attempting to comply. When Escondido Union School District advised Bonta it planned to apply the injunction districtwide, the Attorney General warned the plan was illegal and could prompt enforcement action.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1955 in July 2024. The law made California the first state to prohibit forced outing policies. It barred schools from requiring staff to disclose information about students’ sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to parents without student consent.
Judge Benitez certified the case as a class action in October 2025. The class covered all California parents and teachers who object to gender secrecy policies. On December 22, he granted summary judgment and issued a permanent injunction against Bonta, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, and the California State Board of Education. The injunction prohibited state officials from enforcing policies that mislead parents about their children’s gender presentation. It required schools to follow parents’ directions regarding names and pronouns.
The Ninth Circuit stayed the injunction days later. The parents filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court vacated the stay on March 2. Five justices found California’s policies likely violate the Free Exercise Clause for religious parents and the Due Process Clause for all parents who object. The Court found the policies cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests. Gender dysphoria is a mental health condition. California concealed symptoms from parents while facilitating social transition during school hours.
The Court cited its 2025 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which held parents have a right to guide the religious development of their children. Unconsented facilitation of a child’s gender transition intrudes more on parental rights than introducing LGBTQ storybooks in elementary school curriculum.
Justice Sotomayor would have denied the application. Justices Kagan and Jackson dissented. Justices Thomas and Alito would have granted relief for teachers as well as parents. The majority ruled only for the parents.
Parents in California now have a federal constitutional right to be informed if their child expresses gender incongruence at school. Teachers have a constitutional right to inform parents. The state officials who enforced the concealment policies for years lost at the nation’s highest court.
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