Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging Montgomery Co. schools’ gender identity policy

A lawsuit that accused Montgomery County Public Schools of violating parents’ rights with their gender identity policy was dismissed in federal court.

The lawsuit, filed in late 2020 by two parents in the school district, argued that MCPS’ violated the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) when its 2019 policy allowed staff to not share a student’s chosen gender identity with parents unless the student approves, according to Bethesda Magazine.

Under the policy, staffers are not authorized to share a student’s gender identity with parents even if the student has already shared their different gender identity with other students and teachers.

FERPA, passed in 1974, allows parents to access any of their child’s education records. That would include, the lawsuit argued, any document a student may have filled out that says they have different gender and name preferences than those that are legally listed.

But the outlet reported Friday that a U.S. District Court Judge Paul Grimm found that the “guidelines carefully balance the interests of both the parents and students, encouraging parental input when the student consents, but avoiding it when the student expresses concern that parents would not be supportive, or that disclosing their gender identity to their parents may put them in harm’s way.”

Mr. Grimm went on to say that parents don’t have a “fundamental right” to know about their child’s “gender identity, when it differs from that usually associated with their sex assigned at birth, regardless of their child’s wishes or any concerns regarding the detrimental effect the disclosure may have on that child.”