The New Hampshire Supreme Court has upheld a school district’s policy of school personnel not being required to disclose their child’s gender preferences.
“In a 3-1 opinion, the court upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the mother of a Manchester School District student,” the Associated Press reports.
New Hampshire Supreme Court in a 3-1 vote upheld Manchester School District’s policy encouraging teachers and officials to not disclose students’ status as transgender or gender nonconforming to their parents without their permission. Read further https://t.co/JMuT29cDxN pic.twitter.com/aY6Hy2orKv
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) August 30, 2024
The mother of the Manchester School District student sued after discovering her child preferred to be called at school by a name usually associated with a different gender.
From the Associated Press:
At issue is a policy that states in part that “school personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status or gender nonconfirming presentation to others unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure.”
“By its terms, the policy does not directly implicate a parent’s ability to raise and care for his or her child,” wrote Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald. “We cannot conclude that any interference with parental rights which may result from non-disclosure is of constitutional dimension.”
Senior Associate Justice James Bassett and Justice Patrick Donavan concurred. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Melissa Countway said she believes the policy does interfere with the fundamental right to parent.
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The Manchester School District’s policy of allowing students to keep their gender identity while at school private does not violate a parent’s constitutional rights, according to an opinion released Friday by the New Hampshire Supreme Court.https://t.co/6xKbZLeTTI
— NH Public Radio (@nhpr) August 30, 2024
“Further, the Policy does not restrict a parent’s ability to learn information from other sources, including from the child. The Policy does not encourage students to hide information from their parents or prevent students from sharing information,” MacDonald wrote.
“The plaintiff has failed to demonstrate that the Policy infringes a fundamental parenting right protected by Part I, Article 2,” he added.
From New Hampshire Public Radio:
While Manchester’s policy directs all school staff to respect the wishes of a student not to disclose their transgender status outside of school, the policy does have an exemption for when the safety of the student is of concern.
A lower court judge previously ruled in favor of the school district, noting that “the policy places no limits on the plaintiff’s ability to parent her child as she sees fit.”
In her dissent, Justice Melissa Countway wrote that concealing information from a parent “interferes with a parent’s fundamental right to parent.”
Countway added that “because accurate information in response to parents’ inquiries about a child’s expressed gender identity is imperative to the parents’ ability to assist and guide their child, I conclude that a school’s withholding of such information implicates the parents’ fundamental right to raise and care for the child.”
The case is part of an ongoing, broader fight over the rights of transgender minors in New Hampshire, including whether transgender girls are able to play on girls sports teams in schools.
Read the full ruling HERE.
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