Settlement Reached in Mom’s School Trans Case

A California mother and daughter settled a case for $100,000 with a school district that allegedly tried to transition the girl’s gender without the mother’s consent. 

Jessica Konen, who was represented by The Center for American Liberty, filed a lawsuit against the Spreckels Union School District in California after her daughter, a sixth-grader named Alicia, was recruited into an “Equality Club” and taught about bisexuality and transgender identity, and after the school took steps to help her conceal her identity as a boy, reported The Daily Caller.  

Alicia was given articles on how to keep her gender identity a secret from her parents and allowed to use a unisex teachers’ restroom instead of the girls’ room, her mother said. 

“This is a huge win for Jessica and Alicia, and it’s also a win for parents across the country,” The Center for American Liberty said in a press release after the $100,000 settlement. “Increasingly, schools are pushing radical gender ideology on young students and socially transitioning vulnerable children — without parental notification or consent.”

“Parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children,” the organization added. “Parental Secrecy policies, as employed by the Spreckels Union School District and by schools across the country, unconstitutionally rob parents of that right.”

According to the lawsuit, staff members at the school also reportedly threatened to call Child Protective Services on Jessica Konen when she refused to refer to her daughter as a male. 

Meanwhile, her husband, Gunter, was told of his daughter’s transition during a meeting with a teacher and the school’s principal. 

The ruling comes after another California school board, Chico Unified, voted in April to keep its policy that allows teachers to keep a student’s gender transition secret, despite a lawsuit by a mother who also alleged the school helped her daughter’s transition hidden. 

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday filed a lawsuit to prevent the Chino Valley Unified School District from notifying parents about transgender students. The lawsuit is the most recent attempt by Democrat state officials to fight the adoption of such policies in conservative districts.