There are growing tensions in the debate over a parent’s right to know versus protecting students’ safety and mental health. Several bills pertaining to transgender youth have been going through the legislature over the last few years and now a Valley family is suing Mesa Public Schools over the use of pronouns in schools.
Pronoun laws are beginning to be passed in several states, but Arizona is not on that list. Some of those laws require schools to notify a parent when their students ask to be called a different name or change their pronouns.
Many of those bills come from Republican Senator John Kavanagh, who proposed similar bills last year but was vetoed by Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs.
One bill pertains to the use of pronouns in schools and would require parents to be notified if a student wants to be referred to as a different pronoun than their biological gender as well as any name changes. The other bill is to prohibit transgender students from using the same bathrooms and would instead give them their own, allowing other students to sue if the opposite sex is found in their respective bathrooms.
Kavanagh also proposed similar concurrent resolutions to those bills, meaning that if passed through the legislature, it can bypass the Governor’s signature and go straight to the voters on the ballot.
“Before a school begins calling a student by a name or pronoun that does not align with their biological sex, the parents need to approve. They need to know about it and approve it, because it's not the school's job to, on their own, engage in this in the transformation of a child to a different gender,” Sen. Kavanagh told ABC15.
Advocates for transgender youth spoke out during these education committee meetings where these bills were read.
“I'm begging you to vote no on this. I'm begging you to just leave trans kids alone. Please stop coming after us,” said Samual Kahrs, a trans teen, at the education committee meeting in early February.
Currently, no Arizona laws are on the books that specifically discuss the use of pronouns in schools, so district have their own policies like Mesa Public Schools.
“We have no really control for how the schools run their pronouns in the classroom,” said Margaret Garcia Dugan, the deputy superintendent of the Arizona Department of Education.
Mesa mom Christiana Hammond says trans youth need to be protected and helped, as a trans person herself and board member of the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization.
“I think that it’s kind of a parenting issue more than a school’s responsibility to police these kinds of things. I think if parents are afraid that their kids are out living a secret, double life, it’s really a communication thing that should be dealt with at home,” Hammond said.
A Valley mother is suing the Mesa Public Schools, claiming educators are calling their child a different name and pronoun without their knowledge. School board member Rachel Walden is also part of the lawsuit, which says there’s a list of students who go by certain pronouns and their parents don’t know about the changes.
The district told ABC15 they cannot comment on pending litigation. However, after the district updated its support checklist and guidelines to support transgender and gender nonconforming students, the district, the superintendent wrote to families saying “parents’ rights and student safety are always at the forefront” of what they do at the district.
Educators, including the Mesa Education Association president, say these claims are harming students and the work that’s supposed to be done in the classroom.
“This is noise to us, and it feels like an intentional campaign to try to separate the relationships that students have with their parents and their teachers, something that has almost always been sacred. Now, politics and politicians are trying to disrupt that,” said Marisol Garcia, the president of the Arizona Education Association.
While specific Arizona laws for pronouns in schools don’t currently exist, laws are in place regarding parental rights, which the lawsuit says was violated. That, however, will be up to the court.
As for the bills going through the legislature, most of Kavanagh’s bills would likely get vetoed by Hobbs. However, the resolutions don’t require Hobbs’ signature and could go straight to the voters.
“It's time that, that we make clear rules to protect the modesty of students and the rights of parents,” Kavanagh said.
Transgender advocates continue to push that all those efforts being made publicly at the state level and in local board rooms are harming the mental health of students, where some only feel at home in the schools.
“You can write as many bills as you’d like, but you will not be able to erase us as people,” Kahrs said.
Mesa Education Association sent a statement regarding the lawsuit.
On June 11th, a Maricopa County Superior Court heard oral arguments by the plaintiff, Mesa Unified Schools Board member Rachel Walden, and the defendant, The Mesa Unified School District and Superintendent Andi Fourlis.
The defendant is asking the court to dismiss the charges, citing immunity for the district and its leaders. "The Arizona statute in Title 15 is very clear on this point that a school district, its governing board members, and its employees are immune from civil liability for the consequences of adopting and implementing policies," said Robert Haws, attorney for Mesa Unified School District and the Superintendent.
He also argued that the statute of limitations on a portion of the lawsuit had expired, and asked the judge again to dismiss it.
The plaintiff claims the district violated Arizona's Parents' Bill of Rights.
James Rogers, Walden's attorney, argued in court, "Arizona law requires notification to parents of these sorts of issues - and that's just not happening. This isn't a policy about preferred names, it's a policy that says schools can't tell parents about their students' gender transition in school."
