Public Schools Cannot Conceal Gender Transition From Parents

Washington, DC - February 24, 2026

On February 23, 2026, Dr. Simone Gold and the AFLDS legal team filed an amici curiae brief in support of Petitioner Amber Lavigne in Lavigne v. Great Salt Bay Community School Board (25-759), urging the United States Supreme Court to grant certiorari and reverse the First Circuit’s decision allowing public school officials in Maine to conceal critical information from parents and socially transition their children without parental knowledge or consent.

This case goes to the heart of a fundamental liberty protected by the Constitution: the right of parents to direct the upbringing, care, and education of their own children. That right becomes meaningless when the state acts in secrecy.

Amber Lavigne is suing the Great Salt Bay Community School Board (Respondent) after school officials provided her 13-year-old daughter with a chest binder and socially transitioned the child at school by using a different name and pronouns, all without parental notice or consent. The First Circuit dismissed her claims at the pleading stage, declining to address whether parents have a constitutional right to be informed when schools affirmatively facilitate a child’s attempt at gender transition.

AFLDS is asking the Supreme Court to grant review, correct the First Circuit’s misapplication of federal pleading standards, and reaffirm that the Constitution protects the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children.

The Constitution does not permit government officials to step into the parental role in secret.

This case presents a direct conflict between parents and government officials who assume authority over a child’s mental and physical well-being. The school did not merely adopt classroom language or curricular content. It provided a medical device designed to compress a young girl’s breasts and initiated a social transition process while intentionally withholding that information from her mother.

For over a century, the Supreme Court has recognized that the interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children is among the oldest fundamental liberty interests protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. That protection becomes pointless if schools can socially transition a child, facilitate breast binding, and conceal those actions.

Our amici curiae brief explains that a social “transition” is not a neutral accommodation. It is the first step on a treacherous treadmill that inexorably progresses toward puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, sterilization, permanent loss of sexual function, lifelong medical dependency, and surgical mutilation of healthy bodies. Secret affirmation by state actors accelerates that pathway while stripping parents of their ability to intervene.

AFLDS attorney David Dalia stated, “This case forces the Court to confront a simple constitutional question: can public officials deliberately conceal from a mother the school’s decision to secretly attempt to ‘socially transition’ her daughter into a son? The First Circuit avoided that question by dismissing the case at the pleading stage, without any trial. But a school totally obliterates fundamental parental rights when the school deliberately withholds such crucially important information from that parent about their child. The judiciary has a duty to restrain government actors who exceed their lawful authority, especially when these fundamental parental rights are at stake.”

AFLDS Founder and President Dr. Simone Gold added, “When government employees secretly bind a young girl’s chest and attempt to socially transition her, they are not supporting a child. They are displacing a parent. That is a direct assault on the family and a blatant usurpation of constitutional authority. The state has no power to insert itself between a fit parent and her child in matters that can lead to sterilization, lifelong medical dependency, and irreversible harm. In America, children belong to their parents, not to the government.”

This case carries national significance. Alongside Chiles v. Salazar, Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, Mirabelli v. Bonta, and International Partners for Ethical Care, Inc. v. Ferguson, and other parental rights cases pending across the country, Lavigne will help determine whether public schools may conceal gender “transition” from parents or whether the Constitution still recognizes that mothers and fathers, not bureaucrats, are responsible for their children.

Stay tuned as AFLDS continues to defend parental rights, protect children from medical mutilation, and restrain unlawful government usurpation nationwide.

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Media Contact Lisa Alexander, Communications Director | Media@AFLDS.org