Attorney General Steve Marshall is continuing his advocacy to protect children and families, joining a 22-state coalition that filed a brief in the U.S Supreme Court supporting parental rights. The filing is in opposition to a Massachusetts school district’s policy that allows the “social transitioning” of children without parental consent.
According to the filing supporting the parents in the case Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, “Respondent Ludlow School Committee (“Ludlow”) led B.F., an eleven-year-old girl, to share intimate thoughts; encouraged and implemented a new name, pronouns, and bathroom; and cast doubt on the medical care that her parents thought best.” Decisions that are known to cause "long-term effects.”
“Parents do not surrender their constitutional rights when they send their children to public school. Nor should government bureaucrats be allowed to hide life-altering decisions from mothers and fathers,” Attorney General Marshall said in a release announcing his support of parental rights.
“These actions are especially appalling in light of what Alabama uncovered about the medical industry and radical advocacy groups working to medicalize children. The Supreme Court must make clear for once and for all that parents — not schools with woke ideological agendas—have the ultimate authority over their children.”
According to the Alliance Defending Freedom, “When Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri learned that their middle-school daughter was experiencing depression and questioning her gender identity, they hired a private counselor to help her. They informed the school district they were getting their daughter the mental health help she needed and instructed school officials not to have any private conversations with their daughter about these matters.
Attorneys for ADF explained in their own petition earlier this year, “school officials thought they knew better than the parents. They decided to ‘socially transition’ the girl against her parents’ stated wishes.”
The young girl’s parents, Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, sued Ludlow Public School in Massachusetts.
The coalition of Attorneys General’s brief urges the Supreme Court to review the case and reverse the flawed ruling of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the 2023 district court’s decision in favor of the school’s policy.
Marshall joins attorneys general from West Virginia, Florida, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Guam, also joined the brief led by Montana.
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