news

There is currently no law that says school districts in Michigan must conceal a student’s efforts to transition from their parents or guardians, nor any statute that says they have to disclose it either. The Michigan State Board of Education has put out what they call “guidance” on creating safe and supportive learning environments for students who identify as transgender or questioning.

In it, they state “when students have not come out to their parents, a disclosure to parents should be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis, school districts should consider the health, safety, and well-being of the student, as well as the responsibility to keep parents informed.”

So the school pretty clearly did nothing illegal, nice buried lede

From the lawsuit:

Absent extraordinary circumstances, a school district’s concealment from parents of such information violates the Constitution.

They are claiming the parents have a 1st amendment right to "exercise their religion by directing [their son's] education and upbringing"

and a 14th amendment right to "make decisions about [his] upbringing, education, and healthcare"

Pretty ludicrous argument lol

I feel the first amendment claim completely falls apart because the school did not coerce anyone to do or not do anything. The parents have a right to pull the kid from public school and do homeschool or private school (perhaps unfortunately but in the US they do). But absolute knowledge of what's going on with their kid at school isn't part of that.

the 14th amendment bit, I think also lacks merit. The school didn't interfere in how the kid was raised at all, it just failed to disclose. The arguments for right to privacy for gay kids don't map cleanly to trans kids, but regardless there's no obligation to inform the parent.

Appealing to the law is bullshit though anyhow. Morally the school obviously did the right thing and the courts should interpret the laws however they need to to make sure that they don't accidentally create a parental right-to-panopticon