Wisconsin mother hopeful after court ruling in favor of parents' rights to know about child's transition

A Wisconsin judge ruled Tuesday in favor of parents and their right to know about their child's gender transition. 

Parents sued the Kettle Moraine School District outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, over its policy that enabled and supported students' transitions to different gender identities at school without informing or receiving consent from a child's parents. 

Judge Michael Maxwell ruled in the Waukesha County Circuit Court that the policy "violates parents’ constitutional right to determine the appropriate medical and healthcare for their children." Going forward, the judge said the district is no longer permitted to allow or require "staff to refer to students using a name or pronouns at odds with the student’s biological sex, while at school, without express parental consent."

In November 2021, mother Tammy Fournier took legal action against the school district with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), after the district decided to socially "affirm" their daughter as a transgender boy at school without their permission, which they claimed was a violation of their parental rights. 

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Fournier said that in late 2020, her daughter started experiencing severe anxiety and depression, which eventually spiraled into her thinking that she wanted to identify as a male. 

"During this time, my husband and I did our own research to find out what was in the best interests of our daughter, and we decided that we weren't going to follow the affirmative care model," she told Fox News Digital. "We informed the school district of that, that when she returned to school that they should use her birth name and gender, we are looking into her mental health issues, but we're not rushing in to make any decision at that point."

"They informed us that they're an advocate of the child and not of the parent, and she will be returning to school with whatever pronouns and name she chooses," she added. "And at that point, I immediately removed her from the district."

After Fournier and her husband pulled their daughter, Autumn, who was 12 at the time, out of the Kettle Moraine district, they enrolled her at a different public school in a neighboring town. Once Autumn was removed from Kettle Moraine's so-called "affirmative model," she realized that changing her gender was not the right choice for her. She now identifies as a female. 

The court held that parents have a constitutional right to "direct the upbringing and education of children under their control," including whether a social transition is best for their child, as protected under both the Wisconsin and United States’ Constitutions. 

"The Kettle Moraine School District violated parental rights by adopting a policy to allow, facilitate, and affirm a minor student’s request to transition to a different gender identity at school without parental consent and even over the parents’ objection," the decision said.  

"This particular case is simply whether a school district can supplant a parent’s right to control the healthcare and medical decisions for their children," the opinion said. "The well established case law in that regard is clear – Kettle Moraine can not."

Dr. Stephen Plum, superintendent of Kettle Moraine told Fox News Digital that the district "will continue to work with all students, parents, guardians, and staff to clarify expectations."

"We respect the rights of parents and require written parental consent if and when using student names or pronouns that are at odds with their sex at birth," he said. 

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Luke Berg, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty deputy counsel, told Fox News Digital that the Kettle Moraine School District made decisions on how to refer to students on an ad-hoc basis, but it was an unwritten policy that if any student requested any name and pronouns that they want, the district would defer to the student, not to the parents. 

"When the issue arose with Tammy's daughter, they brought it all the way up to the school board," Berg explained. "The school board said, 'Here's how we're going to handle this situation, we're going to defer to the student, not the parents.'"

Berg said Fournier's story powerfully illustrates why it is important that parents be involved in their child's life because it is part of their job to "protect our children from themselves sometimes."

"Kids sometimes have desires that aren't in their best interests and a parent's job is to help their children navigate those difficult decisions," he said. "This is an example where Tammy was proved right eventually, her daughter realized that transitioning wasn't in her best interest and is now in a very healthy place and identifies as a girl."

"If Tammy hadn't been involved, you can imagine that she could be in a much worse spot than she is today and so that's why it's so important that parents be involved and deferred to on this significant issue," he added. 

Other findings of fact from the opinion determined that social transitioning represents "one of the most difficult psychological changes a person can experience" and "social transitioning without full support of one’s parents can result in the child living a double life which can be ‘psychologically harmful.’"

"Social transitioning of one’s gender is a decision that should usually be preceded by a mental health professional ("MHP") conducting a psychological assessment in order to see the benefits and challenges of such a transition," the opinion stated. 

WILL and ADF brought two expert witnesses in child psychology, Dr. Erica Anderson, a transgender licensed psychologist with over 40 years of experience, and Dr. Stephen Levine, a clinical psychiatrist and professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine who has spent decades working with patients experiencing gender dysphoria.

Levine said it is appropriate for parents to say no to a social transition because it is their job to help children avoid making bad decisions.

Social transitioning is a "powerful psychotherapeutic intervention that likely reduces the number of children desisting from their transgender identity and can lead them to using puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which carry known risks," Levine argued. "Thus, informed consent from the parents must be obtained before socially transitioning a child."

Anderson argued that trained psychotherapists should not drive a wedge between a parent and their child as social transition can only occur with "the support and acceptance of parents/caregivers."

"Among those who express gender dysphoria there are individuals who eventually conclude that they no longer wish to transition," she added. 

The opinion also pointed out that Kettle Moraine was not allowed to administer medicine to a student or allow a student to participate in a sport without parental consent, so why would they be allowed to hide the change of the gender identity of a student. 

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"That's certainly what school districts are doing across the nation," Fournier told Fox News Digital. "They're violating parental rights. I have a right to raise my child and give any medical care that I think is necessary, and I shouldn't have to negotiate or push back on any governmental body to do so."

"I'm hoping that this ruling makes corrections so other parents in my similar situation, avoid having to deal with the circumstances we fell into," she added. 

While Fournier no longer lives in the Kettle Moraine district and the decision made by the court doesn't affect her personally, she said she hopes her current district takes note of the decision and proactively, instead of reactively, adjusts their policies to ensure parents are included in these decisions. 

"Essentially, I would just like schools to stop isolating parents from important parental decisions with their children," she said. 

While other cases challenging school districts' similar policies have been brought across the country, this is the first time a judge has come down in favor of parents, which Berg said will serve as precedent for consideration in other similar cases. 

"We view this as a major win for parental rights," Berg said. "It's one of the first cases to win on this subject, and it's the first case to win in a case brought by parents. There have been a couple of cases that have won challenging similar policies where the claim was brought by teachers, but this is the first win in the case brought by parents."

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"While the holding technically only binds the Kettle Moraine School District, other courts facing similar claims look to what other judges have said in similar cases," he added. "So, we're hoping that this will be a persuasive authority that other courts will look to rule in favor of parental rights like the judge did here, and hold that this kind of decision is such a significant decision that parents have to be involved to decide what is best for their own children."

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