does the government own your children; 

In September, the First Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a high-profile case regarding whether a school violated parents’ constitutional rights by actively encouraging their 11-year-old daughter to transition her gender while keeping it a secret from the parents.

School officials followed a school board policy that encourages them to privately meet with the child and affirm her gender transition, allow her to use the boys’ bathroom, and instruct everyone at school to use her new name and pronouns. The school also asserted that the parents weren’t providing a safe environment at home.

The school’s attorney argued in court that parents do not have a right to know about their child’s “gender transition” because “you can’t decide to have transgender children or not to have transgender children.” The attorney said the school was not obligated to tell parents various things about students. Topics the lawyer claimed are exempt from parent-teacher conversations include whether the child is depressed, suicidal, has been raped, or had an abortion.

US Circuit Judge Kermit Lipez told the school’s attorney that he “seem[ed] to be asserting that the right of students to make decisions trumps the right of parents to know what’s going on.” Stunningly, the attorney acknowledged as such, stating, “We are.”

The case, Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, raises questions about the rights of parents and children and whether or not a school or government has the right to intervene in that relationship. The parents of the child have interpreted the school’s actions as an affront to their constitutional rights. To make matters worse, the parents explicitly wrote to their daughters’ teachers, principal, superintendent, and school board members to make it clear they were handling her gender identity issues. They asked these officials not to privately communicate with their child, and the officials all chose to do the opposite.........more........