Legal Group Files Complaint Against Pennsbury Over Transgender Student

A conservative legal group has asked the federal government to investigate the Pennsbury School District.

The Florida-based Liberty Counsel filed the federal complaint last week with the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of a Pennsbury mother and father whose child attended the district.

District employees used a male name and pronouns for the student without parental knowledge or consent. Staff maintained school records, communications, awards, yearbook materials, and social media content reflecting a male identity for nearly three years, the group stated in the complaint.

The parents discovered the changes near the end of their daughter’s junior year, per the complaint, which was first reported on by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The complaint states the district’s actions interfered with the parents’ right to direct their student’s upbringing, education, and health care, while contributing to a breakdown in the relationship between the family members.

“The deliberate concealment of gender confusion and harmful social transition of minors ignores morality, biological reality, and parental rights,” Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement. “Parents have the fundamental right to know what is happening with their children at school.”

After the parents formally objected last year, the school district agreed to use the student’s given name and pronouns at graduation and correct electronic and public records to reflect the child’s proper name and biological sex, according to the group.

The complaint to federal officials said Pennsbury did not amend its policies.

As part of Pennsbury Board Policy 253.1, a privacy provision gives students the right to keep their gender status private, but another section indicates parents should be involved before records are updated with an unofficial name change.

Liberty Counsel claims the district failed to involve the parents and created a “separate, false identity” for the student while leaving the policy intact for other students.

The Pennsbury School Board has not adopted proposed language changes requested by Liberty Counsel.

As Pennsbury gets federal funding, the complaint asks the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office and Office for Civil Rights to conduct coordinated investigations into potential violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), and Title IX, according to Liberty Counsel.

The filing calls on federal officials to require the district to amend provisions allowing transitions, notify parents, conduct staff training, and review district policy for federal compliance.

District officials declined to address specific allegations in the filing.

“The Pennsbury School District cannot provide detailed comments regarding individual student matters or legal matters,” the district said in a statement. “However, the District can confirm that it follows state and federal law related to individual student matters.”

The U.S. Department of Education did not comment on the filing, as it does not confirm or deny the existence of complaints.

President Donald Trump’s administration has called on school systems to change policies that were designed to protect transgender students.

Trump issued an executive order last year that the federal government should recognize only the male and female genders.

Groups, including LGBTQ rights organization GLAAD, have called the Trump administration’s directions a way to scapegoat and marginalize transgender people.

Liberty Counsel has brought past challenges against government entities over COVID-19 restrictions, vaccination mandates, and Christian free speech issues. The group also opposed the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and represented Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The U.S. Department of Education has civil enforcement offices that investigate complaints filed about schools and higher-education facilities.

Trump has vowed to shut down the federal education department, which is led by Secretary Linda McMahon, the former chief executive officer of World Wrestling Entertainment and former administrator of the Small Business Administration.