Federal Appeals Court Revives Mother’s Lawsuit Over School’s Secret Sex Transition of Daughter
Even the school district agreed: The Supreme Court’s ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta “at least partially undermines the district court’s reasoning.”
A federal appeals court has revived a New York mother’s lawsuit against a public school that socially sex-transitioned her daughter without her knowledge or consent.
Yesterday, the three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the lower court’s dismissal of her constitutional claims and remanded for reconsideration in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta.
We covered the case, Vitsaxaki v. Skaneateles Central School District, in more detail here:
- NY School District Sued For Allegedly Secretly Transitioning 12-Year-Old Student
- Court Says School Can Secretly “Social-Transition” 12-Year-Old Student To Opposite Sex
To recap briefly, New York mother Jennifer Vitsaxaki sued the Skaneateles Central School District in 2024, alleging school staff had treated her 12-year-old daughter “Jane” as a boy, referring to her by a new masculine name and new third-person pronouns—all without her parents’ knowledge or consent.
Under the school’s gender identity policy, the student calls the shots: The district permits students “to determine when, how, and if to notify their parents of their decision to elect a chosen name and/or pronouns at school.”
Vitsaxaki claimed that the policy violated her constitutional rights, including both her religious and parental rights to direct her daughter’s upbringing, education, and healthcare—all of which were rejected by federal district court Judge David Hurd last year.
Judge Hurd applied the more permissive “rational basis” test—rejecting the mother’s argument for “strict scrutiny”—and concluded the school’s policy furthered its legitimate interest in promoting a “safe” learning environment, calling it more “like a civility code that extends the kind of decency students should expect at school.”
The mother appealed to the Second Circuit, and while her case was pending, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Mirabelli, where parents challenged a similar California school gender policy.
Under California guidelines, public school teachers are not allowed to notify parents when their child changes their name and pronouns to “identify” as the opposite sex, unless they have the student’s consent.
In its preliminary ruling, the Supreme Court blocked the policies, concluding the parents were likely to succeed on their free exercise and due process claims. Referencing its earlier decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Court determined such policies likely trigger strict scrutiny—and rejected the State’s argument that student safety and privacy justify them, because “those policies cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.”
Mirabelli shifted the legal landscape in a way that, now, even the school district had to agree, “at least partially undermines the district court’s reasoning” on the mother’s free exercise and due process claims. The federal appeals panel vacated the dismissal on that basis.
The case now returns to the district court, which must consider whether Mirabelli‘s strict scrutiny framework applies—and if so, whether the school’s policy can survive it.
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Comments
Why do I keep having flashbacks to a line from a Star Trek: Original Series episode*: “…tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood”? A lot of these school district and government “officials” really need to learn humility.
* “The Trouble With Tribbles”, season 2, episode 15
Beware and avoid 4Ps: petty people in positions of power
That was such a fun episode.
The contemptible, Dhimmi-crat activist federal “judge,” Hurd, who had proffered an unconvincing legal rationale in order to protect and legitimize this brazen evisceration of well-established parental rights, in slavish devotion and fealty to the wicked “trans” ideology and its fanatical supporters, should fairly be “transitioned” off of the federal bench and into a political job, where he can act out his Dhimmi-crat urges and advance his political policy preferences.
Judge Hurd’s “slavish devotion and fealty” isn’t to “the wicked “trans” ideology”. It’s to the leftist idol: Our Government School System.
Embrace the power of “and”.
I have a fair amount of teaching experience, all on sub status but with some longer assignments.
One day in a very good suburban Detroit district my third grade class saw a video on Keeping Safe. It was actually pretty good.
During the discussion I said, “Here’s a good test. If someone, an adult or another kid, tells you to go somewhere or do something and says not to tell your parents…that’s a good indication that you should tell your parents ”
I am a fully qualified teacher and it would not occur to me that I should hide such things from parents.
And here, they say they let elementary students determine this…but they would not think to let children of that age choose their bed times.
Communists always want to own the children of the state. Parents are just baby factories for them.
This kind of thinking has been around for a long time. See Plato’s “Republic”. I’m still not sure Plato actually approved of the system he described. Perhaps he was describing the result of holding “justice” as the highest good (i.e. higher than God).
Absent legal intervention for child endangerment, there should never be a scenario in which parental rights are subjugated to the state, most especially public schools.
I’m a product of public schools (at least functional ones of decades ago) but I would *never* allow my child to darken the doorway of one today. Between the administration and unions trying to outdo the others Marxism, the lowest quintile driving the agenda and the abysmal results at graduation there’s little reason to keep supporting this model of education.
And that’s before we get to gender dysphoria. There is no way in the world that these ill-educated dopes should have any say whatsoever in treating the mental illness issues of children let alone treatment.
My god… I’m at a loss to understand this level of evil.
Thank you for this comment! We live in a child-sacrifice culture, and abortion is not the only example of it. Failure of parents to prioritize the welfare of their children in regard to their education is another.
Children are too often a fashion accessory and not often enough posterity to their parents.
Molech and Ba’al.
Just because the ruling goes against them doesn’t mean they’ll stop doing what they want.
Look at “Amicus Curiae In Support Of Defendents-Appellees” for a list of purveyors of wickedness.
Skaneateles is a very wealthy area in central NY. Mansions and fine dining. I once ate at The Krebs restaurant.
https://www.thekrebs.com/
If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
The barbaric practice of “gender transitioning” is nothing more than a power grab from parents to destroy the nuclear family, and child vivisection, on a international Mengele scale.
All brought to you, courtesy of the Democrat Socialists and their communist cronies in other countries.