S.C. Attorney General Leads Parental Rights Coalition

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South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson is leading a 12-state coalition seeking to defend parental rights by overturning a potentially precedent-setting district court ruling.

A case filed in the U.S. first circuit court of appeals seeks to reverse a lower court ruling which dismissed a parent’s lawsuit after her child’s school allegedly helped the minor change their gender without parental knowledge or consent.

“Schools have to get a parent’s permission to give a child medicine or take a child on a field trip,” Wilson said. “It’s ridiculous to think schools should be able to help a child with something as drastic as gender transition without informing a parent.”

The lawsuit upon which the brief (.pdf) is based is asking the court to reconsider allegations that school officials did not tell a parent her child was using a new name – and that school officials were using new gender pronouns for the child. Furthermore, the case claimed school officials failed to tell the parent a school employee had given her child two “chest binders” to assist in their gender transition.

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After discovering the chest binders given to her child, the parent allegedly met with the school’s principal – and the school district’s superintendent – to express her concerns. She also allegedly expressed the same concerns at a school board meeting.

Both the school board and school officials subsequently moved to dismiss her objections.

According to the brief filed by Wilson, the U.S. district court which ruled in favor of the school improperly dismissed the appellant’s claim by failing to account for the right of parents to “direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.”

“Thousands of schools across the country have implemented policies that are designed to withhold a student’s transgender status from parents,” the brief noted. “Proponents of these policies often invoke the ‘right to privacy,’ citing students’ purported privacy interests in their gender identity.”

However, the attorneys general argued that withholding policies often not only violate these state laws but also infringe fundamental, long-standing constitutional rights.

Count on this media outlet to keep our audience in the loop on the status of this case – as well as other federal judicial issues impacting South Carolina and her citizens.

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THE BRIEF…

(U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Erin Parrott is a Greenville, S.C. native who graduated from J. L. Mann High School in 2021. She is currently a senior at the University of South Carolina majoring in broadcast journalism. Got feedback or a tip for Erin? Email her here.

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