New Jersey mom fights the state's Democratic attorney general over parental rights policy
Goldwater Institute attorney Adam Shelton on backing a New Jersey mom, who wants to defend a policy that requires teachers to notify parents if their children request to change gender identities.
A New Jersey mom is stepping up to defend a school board’s new parental notification policy against the Garden State’s attorney general.
Fox News Digital spoke with an attorney associated with the Goldwater Institute, who is representing Angela Tycenski in her bid to challenge New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin’s attempt to block the implementation of a policy that requires teachers to notify parents if their children request to change gender identities.
"She wants to make sure that her two kids go to schools that are willing to share information with her, that they're going to notify her of all situations that are going to directly affect her children's mental health, their physical well-being, including decisions to allow her children to use different names or different pronouns if that comes up in the future," attorney Adam Shelton said.
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Parents gather outside of a courthouse in Monmouth County, New Jersey, on Tuesday, Aug. 15. (Fox News)
About 100 parents gathered outside a New Jersey courthouse Tuesday as a judge considered whether to block three school districts from implementing the new policy. There were several transgender activists at the courthouse as well.
The policies at Middletown, Marlboro, and Manalapan-Englishtown regional school districts were approved on June 20, but less than a day later, Platkin filed three "emergency" lawsuits on behalf of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy's administration in opposition to them.
Inside the courthouse in Freehold on Tuesday, the state argued for the court to keep the current preliminary injunction on the policies in effect.
"There will be irreparable harm if the policy is implemented. Once a school outs a student to their parent, the harm is done. It’s irreversible," New Jersey Deputy Attorney General James Michael argued.
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Democratic New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin has said that transgender children are a protected class, and as such, school districts implementing similar policies directly violate New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination. (AP Photo/Mike Catalini, File)
In the state’s lawsuit, Platkin stated that "outing" of transgender, gender-nonconforming and non-binary students poses "serious mental health risks; threatens physical harm to students, including increased risk of suicide; and shirks the district's duty to create a safe and supportive learning environment for all."
"We're waiting to hear back from the court, both on our motion to intervene in the case and the court's decision of whether to enjoin the policy from going into effect," Shelton said.
Shelton added, "So what's happening here in New Jersey has filed an administrative complaint with the New Jersey Department of Justice alleging that these policies violate New Jersey anti-discrimination laws."
The parental rights policies at Middletown, Marlboro, and Manalapan-Englishtown regional school districts were approved on June 20, but less than a day later, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin filed three "emergency" lawsuits on behalf of Gov. Phil Murphy's administration in opposition to them. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)
Platkin has said that transgender children are a protected class, and as such, school districts implementing similar policies directly violate New Jersey's law against discrimination.
The lawsuit also states that the policies directly defy the New Jersey Department of Education's policy on transgender students, which claims parents should not be informed about what their child does in school.
Shelton pushed back arguing that Platkin’s argument rests on an "interpretation of New Jersey’s intent" and New Jersey's anti-discrimination law offered by the New Jersey Department of Education.
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"We are intervening on behalf of a New Jersey mom who sends her two kids to schools governed by the Marlboro Township Board of Education, alleging that the policies must stand… we’re defending the policies required by the U.S. Constitution, and that the interpretation of the New Jersey anti-discrimination law offered by the New Jersey Attorney General violates both U.S. Constitution and New Jersey's Constitution."
Fox News' Nikolas Lanum and Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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