The district violates students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights through its “Transgender and Students Nonconforming to Gender Role Stereotypes” policy.
Case Details
Case Status
Settled
Location
Iowa
Date Filed
August 2, 2022
UPDATE: After PDE won in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the case ended in a settlement in February 2024. Linn-Mar agreed to remove, and never bring back, the part of its policy that punished students for not respecting another student’s gender identity.
On August 2, 2022, Parents Defending Education (PDE) sued Iowa’s Linn-Mar Community School District in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. PDE argued the district’s “Transgender and Students Nonconforming to Gender Role Stereotypes” policy violates students’ and parents’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
On April 25, 2022, the Linn-Mar School Board passed Policy 504.13 over the objections of dozens of community members. The board told parents the policy only put in writing what the district had already been doing for five years. According to the lawsuit, the policy:
- says that the school will not tell parents about a student’s “transgender status” unless the student agrees
- says “any student in seventh grade or older will have priority of their support plan over their parent/guardian,” so in practice, students and school staff make these decisions alone
- keeps gender support plans in a separate “temporary” file so parents can never see them
- allows punishment, up to suspension and expulsion, for “intentional and/or persistent refusal by staff or students to respect a student’s gender identity,” such as not using a student’s chosen pronouns or new name
PDE filed the case on behalf of members in the district whose children are directly affected by both the parental exclusion part of the policy and the speech part. PDE is especially concerned about children with special needs, including those on the autism spectrum, who are particularly vulnerable under this policy.
“Linn-Mar’s gender policy demonstrates a deep contempt for the constitutional rights of its students and families,” said Parents Defending Education President Nicole Neily. “It has been clearly established by the federal court system over the past 100 years that parents have a right to direct the upbringing of their children, and we are proud to fight on behalf of our members to put a stop to these unconstitutional policies.”
PDE asked the court to declare that the parental exclusion policy violates the Equal Protection Clause and that the speech policy violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. PDE also asked the court to block both policies.
Read the complaint below: