UPDATE: Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear about hiding info from parents

By Mary Laval

We now have an update to our article in the fall, Case for the Wisconsin Supreme Court: Should parents be notified about their secretly trans-identifying students? The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and will now rule on two issues: 1) the degree to which the plaintiffs can be anonymous, and 2) whether the current policy of parents not being notified should be continued during the lengthy court process.

As described by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL):

The Wisconsin Supreme Court granted a petition for review in Doe v. MMSD, a Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) lawsuit on behalf of a group of parents challenging a Madison Metropolitan School District’s (MMSD) gender identity policy that violates the rights of parents to make important healthcare decisions on their children’s behalf. WILL and ADF filed the lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court in 2020 after MMSD adopted policies that allow children of any age to transition to a different gender identity at school without parental consent and even instructed district employees to deceive parents about the transition.

 The Wisconsin Supreme Court will review a September 2020 partial injunction against the policy and to what extent the parents can remain anonymous. Oral arguments are expected to be scheduled at a later date.

WILL Deputy Counsel, Luke Berg, said, “We are pleased the Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to hear this important case. The Madison Metropolitan School District cannot make decisions reserved for parents.”

ADF counsel Kate Anderson, Director of ADF’s Center for Parental Rights, added, “School policies that exclude parents from children’s gender identity decisions are harming children across the country. We are hopeful that the Wisconsin Supreme Court will take the lead in protecting a parent’s right to be a parent.”

You can read the entire press release here.

Image credit: Gary Todd, Flickr