Manchester mom sues school district over transgender student policy
Mar. 3—A Manchester mother is suing the city school district over a policy that prevents school officials from informing parents about their child's "transgender status" at school without the student's permission.
"We think that's outrageous," said Concord-based attorney Richard Lehmann, who is representing the mother in the lawsuit filed Thursday in Hillsborough Superior Court North in Manchester.
The policy was adopted in January 2021 on a 10-2-2 vote "to create a safe learning environment for all students and to ensure that every student has equal access to all school programs and activities."
Critics say the policy keeps parents out of the loop.
"School personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student's transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation to others, including parents and other school personnel, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure," the policy reads. "Transgender and gender nonconforming students have the right to discuss and express their gender identity and expression openly and to decide when, with whom, and how much to share private information."
The lawsuit says the policy allows for students, including minors, to consult with school personnel about being permitted to choose a gender expression and to be addressed by school personnel and other students using pronouns not consistent with the student's birth sex.
"The policy states that school personnel 'should' address a minor student's wishes in this regard," the lawsuit states. "The policy thus begs the question: How are school personnel to decide whether they 'should' comply with a student's stated wishes?"
The plaintiff wants a judge to declare the policy unconstitutional, issue an injunction prohibiting the Manchester School District from enforcing or training staff to enforce the policy, set damages and order the district to pay her attorney fees.
Interim Superintendent Jenn Gillis said the district is "consulting with our legal counsel on this matter at this time."
The suit
In the lawsuit, a Manchester woman identified as Jane Doe said her minor child, identified as M.C., asked teachers and students last fall to address the child by a name typically associated with a gender different from M.C.'s sex at birth.
Jane Doe became aware of this fact through an inadvertent disclosure by one of M.C.'s teachers, according to the lawsuit.
Jane Doe communicated with her child's guidance counselors and others at the school that she would like her child to be treated according to M.C.'s birth gender, to be addressed by the name on the district's mandatory permanent record and to be referred to with pronouns corresponding to the student's biological sex.
The lawsuit states two of M.C.'s teachers emailed Jane Doe to say, "I do think that a parent should be giving permission for their child to be called by any other name."
According to the lawsuit, another teacher wrote, "We will absolutely respect your wishes and continue to call [M.C. by M.C.'s birth name]."
According to the filing, "minutes later" Jane Doe received an email from the school principal saying, "while I respect and understand your concern, we are held by the district policy as a staff," which "outlines the fact that we cannot disclose a student's choice to parents if asked not to."
Since receiving the email, the lawsuit says Jane Doe discussed gender expression issues, birth-name usage and pronouns with M.C.
"M.C. has advised Jane Doe that M.C. requested school personnel to use M.C.'s birth name and Pronouns," the lawsuit states. "School personnel likewise have represented to Jane Doe that they are addressing M.C. by M.C.'s birth name and pronouns.
"However, the continued existence of the policy means that Jane Doe cannot know whether representations by district personnel are factually true, or whether the district personnel are simply following the policy by misleading and/or lying to Jane Doe about M.C.'s in-school gender expression and the district's response thereto," the lawsuit states.
The Manchester school board passed its transgender policy in January 2021, after New Hampshire enacted three pieces of non-discrimination legislation for transgender people in 2019.
Those included expanding non-discrimination provisions to health insurance and other areas, adding a non-binary gender marker option (X) to state identification documents and calling for a universal set of non-discrimination protections for students at public schools in the state.
The last measure included a recommendation that each school district and chartered public school should develop policies that address and prevent discrimination.
