Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a New Jersey father have filed their opening brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in a federal lawsuit against state and local officials based on a school district’s treating of the man’s daughter as a boy without his consent.
Christin Heaps sued the Delaware Valley Regional High School Board of Education, among others, for using male pronouns to address his daughter and hiding the “social transition” from him for several months before telling him that state law and district policy require them to continue, upon his daughter’s request, to treat her as a boy, even against his wishes.
“Parents have the right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children without fear of government interference,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of ADF’s Center for Parental Rights. “Schools should never hide vital information from parents, let alone go against their express instructions related to the well-being of their children. School officials should support parents, not replace them, and we are urging the court to uphold these constitutional rights.”
Heaps had his daughter in therapy for a year-and-a-half for various mental health struggles stemming from the death of her mother and other issues. Shortly after she started high school, school officials learned Heaps’ daughter had questions about her gender and asked her whether they should refer to her with a male name and masculine pronouns. They immediately began to address her as a boy—without Heaps’ knowledge or consent—and took affirmative steps to hide their actions from Heaps. When he incidentally learned the school was addressing his daughter as a boy months later, he instructed them to stop. But they refused, citing district and state policy. Claiming that this violated his fundamental rights as a parent, Heaps filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. That court denied his request to make the “social transition” stop, prompting the appeal to the 3rd Circuit.
The ADF brief notes that Heaps has no choice but to send his daughter to public school because of the time and cost associated with homeschooling or private school.
“Even when he placed his daughter in the school district’s home-instruction program, employees insisted on referring to her by a masculine name and male pronouns,” the brief states. “[School district employees] continue to insist New Jersey law, state guidance, and district policy require them to socially transition Mr. Heaps’s daughter in secret.”
In addition to the ADF brief filed in Heaps v. Delaware Valley Regional High School Board of Education, multiple parental rights advocates and state officials filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of Heaps’ challenge to maintain his parental rights.
“Parents like Mr. Heaps have a legal duty as well as a biological imperative to keep their children safe,” the multistate brief led by the state of Montana, and joined by 21 other states and the Arizona Legislature, explains. “Correspondingly, the constitution recognizes that parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children and to instill in them moral standards and beliefs.”
