Attorneys for the mother who sued the Skaneateles School District have filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The appeal comes after a federal district court ruled in favor of the school district last month.
According to the suit, late in the 2020-2021 school year, the mother, Jennifer Vitsaxaki, discovered that school employees, acting under district policy, had been treating her daughter as a boy behind her back. That forced Vitsaxaki to withdraw her daughter from the Skaneateles Central School District.
Without notifying Vitsaxaki or seeking her consent, employees began to refer to her daughter with a masculine name and third-person plural pronouns inconsistent with her daughter’s sex. The lawsuit explains that, by socially transitioning Vitsaxaki’s daughter without her consent and concealing vital information about her daughter’s health and well-being, the district violated Vitsaxaki’s fundamental parental rights and her deeply held religious beliefs.
“Parents have the right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children without government meddling,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of ADF’s Center for Parental Rights. “Parents should be able to drop their kids off at school without fear that school staff will conceal critical information or cut them out of weighty decisions about their own children. The district policy in this lawsuit betrays the trust of parents like Mrs. Vitsaxaki and violates their fundamental rights, something we’re urging the 2nd Circuit to correct.”
When Vitsaxaki confronted school officials, they defended their actions, citing district policy. Vitsaxaki felt she had no choice but to pull her daughter from in-person schooling and finish the school year online. During this time, some staff continued to refer to her daughter by a masculine name even after Vitsaxaki told them to stop. The following school year, she enrolled her daughter at a private school in Syracuse, 25 miles from their home.
In March, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York ruled in favor of the school, prompting the 2nd Circuit appeal.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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