Mother sues school after her daughter identifies as a boy

A MOTHER who claims teachers secretly manipulated her 11-year-old daughter into changing her gender identity and name has filed a legal case against a California school district.

Spreckels Union School District was responsible for “extreme and outrageous conduct” that led the student on a path towards transitioning to become a boy and drove a wedge between mother and child, according to the claim filed by a conservative legal group on Wednesday.

Jessica Konen said two middle school teachers who ran the school’s Equality Club – later known as UBU (You Be You) – planted the seed that her daughter was bisexual in 6th grade and then introduced the idea she was transgender.

In a leaked recording from a California Teachers Association conference, two teachers were quoted discussing how they kept meetings private and “stalked” students online for recruits for the club.

“When we were doing our virtual learning, we totally stalked what they were doing on Google, when they weren’t doing school work,” one teacher said. One of them was Googling ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’

“And we’re like, ‘Check.’ We’re going to invite that kid when we get back on campus.”

While Ms Konen said her daughter had revealed she was bisexual, she was unaware she was identifying as a boy until she was called to a meeting at the Buena Vista Middle School principal’s office in December 2019 when her daughter was in seventh grade.

“I literally was caught off guard. I was blindsided,” Ms Konen said.

One of Ms Konen’s chief complaints was that she was kept in the dark by the school about her daughter’s participation in the club. She said her daughter was even told how to make a binder to keep her breasts from developing.

“The concept that the schools have a right to be running secret, don’t-tellyour-parents clubs and don’t-tell-yourparents programs and actively coaching children how to mutilate themselves, which is you know, not growing your breasts, is certainly not consistent with California law,” said Harmeet Dhillon, the attorney who filed the case.

Under state and federal law, however, students have privacy rights that extend to sexual orientation and gender identity. Only in limited circumstances can a school notify a parent of their child’s sexual identity against their wishes.

Ms Konen said her daughter was now doing well in high school.

The teachers involved could not be reached by the Associated Press for comment.

They were placed on administrative leave in November.