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WASHINGTON, D.C. – America First Legal (AFL) has secured a significant victory in its lawsuit challenging Mesa Public Schools’ (MPS) practice of concealing students’ in-school gender transition from parents. MPS is the largest school district in the State of Arizona, with 53,000 students in 82 schools and programs. The Arizona Court of Appeals issued an opinion affirming parents’ rights and rejecting the school district’s attempt to dismiss the case on procedural grounds.
The three-judge panel rejected the trial court's dismissal of the case and reinstated claims challenging MPS’s controversial transgender policy. This policy requires teachers and school staff to secretly conceal students’ in-school gender transitions from their parents in direct violation of Arizona’s Parents’ Bill of Rights. The case involves a parent, identified by the pseudonym of Jane Doe in court filings, who discovered that her daughter had been encouraged to adopt a male name and identity at school, without the mother’s knowledge or consent. Even worse, administrators and teachers eventually admitted that they had deliberately withheld this information from the girl’s parents and that it was official MPS policy not to tell parents about such matters.
Jane Doe met with her daughter’s junior high school principal, who refused to provide additional details on what school officials had been saying to her child about gender and sexuality. The principal also admitted that:
Teachers and administrators permitted and encouraged the use of a new name and gender identity at school without parental knowledge or consent. School personnel deliberately avoided updating the daughter’s official student records to prevent automatic parental notification.
The court rejected MPS’s arguments that Jane Doe lacked standing or waited too long to sue, explaining that when a challenged policy remains in effect, parents may seek judicial review to prevent future violations of their rights — even if the school claims the harm has already passed.
“Arizona law puts parents, not school bureaucrats, in charge of their children’s upbringing, education, and mental health, and districts must answer when they cross that line,” said James Rogers, Senior Counsel at America First Legal. “Parents have the God-given right — and responsibility — to raise and nurture their children. Government schools should never try to secretly usurp that role. Teachers and administrators should not deceive parents or hide critical information about their children’s welfare.”
AFL will continue to fight to hold Mesa Unified School District accountable, defend parents’ rights, and save children from radical ideology in America’s public schools.
Read the court’s decision here.
Read more about this case here.
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