Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, along with fifteen other attorneys general, is spearheading an effort to have the Supreme Court consider a case involving parental permission and schools that hide transgender kids.
“Parents should have a say in important decisions that have an impact on their kids’ lives. The U.S. Supreme Court has the chance to provide much-needed clarification in this case and reiterate that public servants cannot violate parents’ fundamental rights just because they think they are superior, according to Miyares, who made the statement on Monday. “To assist a child’s well-being, schools must collaborate with parents, not against them.”
The case that the group is requesting the court consider concerns a Wisconsin lawsuit from 2021, in which the parents challenged the district’s policy permitting pupils to change their gender identity at school without notifying their parents.
Both the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and a district court dismissed the parents’ complaint on the grounds that they “lacked standing.”
Additionally, the district’s policy blatantly violates parental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The attorneys general stated in the amicus brief that parents have the duty and right to raise their children, not administrators.
In the brief, the attorneys general also stated that “clear guidance is required from this Court before other parents and children suffer harm.”
In his own commonwealth, Miyares witnessed multiple battles for parental rights, in which parents from northern Virginia sparked a national movement against their school boards over issues such as curriculum conflicts, school lockdowns, the concealment of sexual assaults, parent harassment, and the application of gender ideology.
Recently, proponents of parental rights legislation known as Sage’s Law—which would have granted parental consent regarding a child’s gender transition—fought to put it into effect. These lawmakers included Republican Del. Dave LaRock and state Sen. John McGuire, who is currently the Republican nominee for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District. The Act is named after a teenage girl whose gender dysphoria went unreported by school, leaving her vulnerable to sexual abuse and sex trafficking. In February of this year, Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly attempted to defeat the law.