New Jersey Files More Civil Rights Lawsuits Over Gender Identity Parental Notice Policies

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin has filed three more civil rights lawsuits against town school districts  for adopting  policies requiring schools to notify parents about any changes in their children’s gender identity at school.

It follows the civil rights complaints Platkin filed last month against the Hanover Township School Board for adopting a new policy he said broke state discrimination laws by requiring schools to “out” children to their parents. 

Shawn Hyland, Director of Advocacy for the New Jersey Family Policy Center, told The Epoch Times that Platkin appears to be trying to set a legal precedent that parents have no rights over their own children when it comes to a government-imposed agenda to reassign the biological genders of minors.

“I think it’s a major attempt to make children a property of the state,” said Hyland, “it’s by the very least a power grab for the state to take over the decision-making of school boards.”

Pacific Justice Institute Attorney Karyn White, who is representing a group of  New Jersey parents and organizations in a court petition against Platkiin over  the Hanover Township suit, agrees.

She told the Epoch Times she believes the case will end up in the Supreme Court, where it may very well set national, legal precedence in the argument “liberal government officials” are making that minors have a  right to privacy from their parents. 

“The New Jersey Attorney General  is essentially declaring it illegal for a school to tell a parent if their child is changing gender identities at school,” she said. 

The court petition she filed on behalf of the Hanover Township group seeks to move the civil rights lawsuit he filed against the town school board to Superior Court, where proceedings would be open to the public.

Platkin filed the civil rights complaint against Hanover Township with his own Department of Civil Rights (DCR) after winning an injunction against the implementation of the new parental notification policy in superior court. 

Unlike court cases, any proceedings relevant to  civil rights complaints filed with the Attorney General’s office are confidential.

While White said it is legal for Platkin to file civil rights complaints with his own office, she said in this case, it is not very ethical. 

“Parents deserve transparency when a powerful official like an attorney general is looking to take their rights away,” she said.

Platkin also filed his civil rights complaints against the other school with his own DCR.

Platkin, who wrote in a  2022 Twitter post that he married his husband nine years ago in upstate New York because “gay marriage was illegal in his home state of New Jersey,” has refused to speak to The Epoch Times about the civil rights suits and has instead emailed links to its web page for press releases.

In a June 28 post on Twitter about the 1969 police raid of a gay club in New York City, known as the Stonewall Riots, Platkin posted on Twitter, “We honor the strength and the courage of all those who galvanized the modern-day LGBTQ+ movement. 54 years later, we carry the baton forward to continue down the path towards equality and inclusion.”

There are no press releases on his state website about the civil rights lawsuits he has filed against the four New Jersey schools.

There is a Jan. 26 one entitled “AG Platkin and Acting Commissioner Allen-McMillan Announce Joint Statement from Division on Civil Rights and Department of Education on School-Based Anti-Bias Initiatives and the Law Against Discrimination.”  

Angelica Allen-McMillan is the Acting Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education.

In the release, Platkin and Allen-McMillan  make reference to New Jersey Law Against Discrimination as the law that protects against “historically excluded communities.” They identify LGBTQIA+ as one of those communities. 

“In New Jersey, the law is clear. The LAD prohibits schools from adopting policies or practices that discriminate against students or staff based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or other protected characteristics, whether or not motivated by discriminatory intent,” they wrote, 

“The LAD also prohibits policies or practices that create a hostile environment based on any protected characteristic.”

Hyland said parental notification policies have nothing to do with the state’s anti-discrimination laws because they are designed to protect adults against things like housing and job discrimination. 

“Not seeing where children fall into this protected class,” he said.

Platkin has not publicly cited the specific law he says the schools have violated.

Under NJ Rev Stat § 18A:36-41 “Development, distribution of guidelines concerning transgender students,”  the law states that The Commissioner of Education shall develop guidelines “to provide direction for schools in addressing common issues concerning the needs of transgender students, and to assist schools in establishing policies and procedures that ensure a supportive and nondiscriminatory environment for transgender students.”

The other three schools district Platkin filed civil rights complaints against include Manalapan-Englishtown, Middletown, and Marlboro.

Under Middletown and Manalapan-Englishtown’s new policies, notification to parents are required if their child asked to be referred to by gender pronouns different from their biological gender.

Marlboro’s policy calls for notification to parents when a student changes their gender identity and expression.

Hanover-Township’s policy called for a broader notice to parents—triggered by any sexual orientation activity.

The school included the factor among some 30 other reasons that schools should notify parents. 

They include drug and alcohol use, disclosed eating disorders, truancy, depression, fatigue, anti-social behaviors,  bullying issues, truancy, and gang affiliation.

Platkin only objected to the notification regarding the sexual orientation activity of children.

Gregory Quinlan, President of The Center For Garden State Families, told The Epoch Times that Platkin is using his power to deliberately break the cardinal rule “we have forever taught kids,” and that is “it is wrong when adults encourage children from keeping secret from their parents.”

“If that’s not child grooming then I don’t know what is,” he said.

On Wednesday (June 28) night, the Colts Neck school board in New Jersey postponed a vote on a similar parental notification policy to the other schools now the subject of Platkin’s civil rights lawsuits.

Parents spoke for and against the policy. One parent said that a child “who believes in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and The Easter Bunny does not have the emotional or intellectual maturity to decide what their parents should and should not know.”  

Another parent opposed to the policy said if you don’t have a trans kid, “keep your ill-conceived opinions to yourself because they are hurting our children.”