(The Center Square) – The Encinitas Union School District withdrew its appeal of a ruling in a gender ideology lawsuit.
Instead, the San Diego County district will comply with a lower federal court decision and notify parents and provide opt-outs for parents in gender ideology lessons and programs, according to district officials and lawyers representing the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit, filed in September 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, alleges that the school district violated parents’ and students’ First Amendment rights by compelling students’ speech. A copy of the initial complaint said the district violated parents’ First Amendment right to bring up their children in a religious manner, failed to provide notice to parents about objectionable material in school, and violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
A decision issued by the court in May 2025 requires the school district to notify parents and provide opt-outs for families to excuse their children from any lesson or activity that covers gender identity in the school district’s buddy program.
“We’re very glad to see that this district has seen the writing on the wall,” Kayla Toney, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case, told The Center Square. “We’re also committed to making sure that their policy change is permanent, and the school district does not violate the rights of parents and students in the future.”
A case decided in the U.S. Supreme Court this spring, Mahmoud vs. Taylor, set a legal precedent for the way the Encinitas School District case was decided, Toney told The Center Square. In that Supreme Court case, the court ruled that school districts have to notify parents of teachings in school that would “substantially interfere with the religious development” of children, according to guidance issued by the California Department of Education.
“The Supreme Court’s decision affirms that parents have the right to know what their children are being taught in school, and to opt out when that teaching interferes with their sincerely held religious beliefs,” said Dean Broyles, president of the National Center for Law & Policy, in a press release about the case against the Encinitas Union School District. “Our clients are vindicated now that the District appears to be aligning its policies with Supreme Court precedent, as a result of this litigation.”
After the federal court’s ruling, the school district appealed. The district, in its withdrawal of its appeal this month, said in a statement that school officials deny any wrongdoing.
“It is our assessment that continuing the appeal is no longer fiscally responsible or a prudent use of the district’s limited resources,” the district said. “We believe discontinuing the lawsuit is in the best interest of our school community and that plaintiffs’ objective is a legislative not litigious matter.”
In the fall semester of 2024, the school district required fifth-grade students in an elementary school buddy program to teach kindergarten students, with whom they were paired, about gender identity by watching a read-along version of a book called “My Shadow is Pink,” in which a boy feels his shadow is pink. The boy says he likes to wear dresses and dance, and after the boy has a stressful day at school, his dad also puts on a dress.
After the fifth-grade students read the book to their kindergarten buddies, they were required to outline their younger buddies’ shadows in chalk in a color of the kindergarteners’ choosing. The May 2024 complaint states that fifth-grade students were bothered that kindergarteners were watching the read-along video, but that they were afraid to speak up about it. The complaint also says that at least one of the fifth-grade students was “deeply troubled” about the material taught in the buddy program that day, and he hoped his kindergarten buddy in the program didn’t understand the real meaning of what the book or activity was supposed to convey.
Despite the clear ruling that families of students in the school district have the right to be notified of gender identity material at school and the right to opt their children out of programs and activities on gender ideology, the school district still teaches lessons in school on gender identity, Toney told The Center Square.
“Students are still faced with gender ideology teaching at this particular school district,” Toney said. “They do tend to push this topic. I think parents now are much more aware of this type of teaching, and many parents have expressed their concerns with it.”
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According to the lawsuit, Encinitas Union School District administrators implemented gender identity teaching in schools to combat ideas of transphobia and harmful stereotypes about transgender people. Administrators subsequently acquired books and other teaching materials about transgender issues and led teacher trainings on related topics.
Organizations that advocate for transgender people, including The Transgender Law Center, The Trevor Project, GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, and Advocates for Trans Equality, did not respond to The Center Square’s requests for comment.
