Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a New York mother filed their opening brief Thursday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Vitsaxaki v. Skaneateles Central School District. In the spring of 2021, Jennifer Vitsaxaki discovered that school employees, acting under Skaneateles Central School District official policy, had been treating her daughter as a boy—a so-called “social transition”—behind her back for months. Because of this discovery, Vitsaxaki felt compelled to withdraw her daughter from the district.
Without notifying Vitsaxaki or seeking her consent, district employees began to refer to her daughter with a masculine name and third-person plural pronouns inconsistent with her daughter’s sex. This social transition went on for months. Employees even actively concealed it from Vitsaxaki when she asked if they had noticed any changes in her daughter. When Vitsaxaki discovered the secret social transition, she objected. But the district continued to socially transition her daughter anyway.
“Parents have the right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children without government meddling,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of ADF’s Center for Parental Rights. “When parents drop their kids off at school, they place great trust in the school. And when schools cut parents out of weighty decisions about their own kids, they betray that trust. That’s what happened here. Under the district’s policy, school staff concealed important information from Jennifer about her daughter… The district’s betrayal of parents like Jennifer violates their fundamental rights, something we’re urging the 2nd Circuit to recognize.”
When Vitsaxaki confronted school officials, they defended their actions, citing district policy. Vitsaxaki felt she had no choice but to pull her daughter from in-person schooling and finish the school year online. During this time, some staff continued to refer to her daughter by a masculine name even after Vitsaxaki told them to stop. The following school year, she enrolled her daughter at a private school in Syracuse, 25 miles from their home.
In the lawsuit, attorneys explain that by socially transitioning Vitsaxaki’s daughter without parental notice or consent and concealing vital information about her daughter’s health and well-being, the district violated Vitsaxaki’s fundamental parental rights and her deeply held religious beliefs. A lower court dismissed the case, prompting the appeal to the 2nd Circuit.
“The district court got it wrong at nearly every step,” the brief explains. “A school district cannot socially transition a 12-year-old girl without her parents’ knowledge or consent. And it especially can’t do so and actively conceal its actions. Yet the School District here did all three based on official policy. That violated Mrs. Vitsaxaki’s fundamental right to direct her daughter’s upbringing, education, and healthcare.”
