Standing Up for Parental Rights Has Never Been More Urgent

I was an educator for more than 25 years, most recently as a special education and English teacher at Harrisonburg City Public Schools in Virginia. During that time, I saw how keeping parents involved and informed through honesty and transparency could transform tough situations. That principle became more relevant than ever to me in 2021, when a new district policy went into effect that required concealing things from parents about their children.

I believe that God created the family and charged parents with the primary responsibility of caring for their children. As a teacher, part of my job is to work closely with parents, responding to their questions, addressing their concerns, and respecting their decisions about how they raise their child. I take seriously the trust parents place in me when they drop their child off at school each day.

However, in August 2021, I attended mandatory training at school where my school district informed staff about a new policy that undermined transparency and parental involvement. The training prohibited me from speaking to a student’s parents about the use of preferred names and pronouns at school without the student’s consent. If a student was using preferred names and pronouns at school and his or her parents were not aware of the situation (and the student did not specifically authorize his or her parents to know about the situation at school), I was instructed not to tell them—in other words, to be deceptive with the parents about the student’s situation.

That training, and the policy underlying it, had implications for how we dealt with our students’ educational records. We were instructed not to include gender identity information (such as preferred names or pronouns) on certain records sent to the high school because parents might be able to see it. Instead, we were told to note in the student’s file that there was further information that should be discussed in person.

In another meeting, we were reminded to only use student names from the “PowerSchool” system—names provided by parents—when sending progress reports home. This reinforced the policy that denied parents access to their child’s full and complete education records and concealed a school’s use of students’ preferred names and pronouns from their parents.

Furthermore, I understood that if I were to do anything that violated this policy—such as disclosing to a student’s parents that their child was using different names or pronouns at school—then I would be subject to disciplinary action up to and including expulsion or discharge.

I loved my students and believed that complying with the school board’s directives would harm them and their families. In all other aspects of school life, I felt I had the school board’s full support to involve parents in issues affecting their children. Yet when it came to sensitive questions about identity and self-worth, the policy directed teachers to exclude parents—the very people who know and love their children best.

I felt that this new policy forced me to betray parents’ trust. I could not look parents in the eye while keeping them in the dark about the challenges their children were facing.

Public school officials who implement policies like these may not only be violating state laws but also constitutionally protected parental rights and federal law—namely the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment—by hiding information from parents and evaluating a child’s sexuality, identity, and family life without parental notification or consent.

So, together with other teachers and parents, we hired Alliance Defending Freedom to represent us in a lawsuit. Two years later, the school board finally agreed to a settlement. In the final agreed order, the school board acknowledged that it “does not require staff to use a preferred name or pronoun” and “it does not support hiding or withholding information from parents.

I am grateful that we were able to settle the case, and I am particularly glad about the final result. Ensuring transparency and parental involvement is key to creating a supportive learning environment where students can thrive, knowing they have the unwavering support of both their teachers and their families.

That said, many school boards are ignoring federal laws designed to protect students and their parents. Congress should strengthen those laws against such gerrymandering, and all Americans should be aware of their rights and respectfully push back when school officials attempt to disregard them.