A New England mother is asking the Rhode Island Supreme Court to strike down a regulation that allowed her daughter to “socially transition” genders at school without her consent. She only learned of the school’s actions after her daughter attempted to take her own life.
The mother, who is cited as “Jane Doe” in court documents to protect her identity and the identity of her daughter, learned in 2022 that her daughter’s school had allowed the teen to begin identifying as a boy. The school did not notify Doe of the social transition.
The Rhode Island Superior Court denied Doe’s petition in August, and now the mother, represented by the Law Centre at the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, has filed an appeal with the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
“Judge Joseph McBurney’s torturous decision in denying Jane Doe’s petition to rescind the Rhode Island Department of Education’s (RIDE) unlawful transgender regulation … can only be described as an abomination of common sense and God’s truth,” according to Mike Stenhouse, the CEO of Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity.
“Jane Doe’s plight played absolutely zero role in [the judge’s] warped ruling,” Stenhouse said, adding, “Neither she nor her daughter were mentioned and were not even an afterthought!”
Rhode Island state law prohibits “discrimination on the basis of sex” in schools across the state. In 2018, the Rhode Island commissioner of education issued a regulation pertaining to the state law and expanded the definition of “sex” to include “sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression in schools.”
The regulation not only redefined “sex,” but also directed school districts across the state to “adopt a policy addressing the rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming students to a safe, supportive, and nondiscriminatory school environment.”
The regulation further directed schools to consider issues such as “confidentiality and privacy” in their creation of policies addressing gender identity.
In the case of West Warwick Public Schools, where Doe’s daughter was in school, a policy was adopted that allowed the school to hide a student’s gender identity from parents if “the administration determines that notifying the family carries risks for the student,” according to the policy.
The lawsuit, filed in the state’s Superior Court in March, is specifically against Angélica Infante-Green, the Rhode Island commissioner of elementary and secondary education, and is aimed at forcing the repeal of the regulation that redefined “sex” to include gender identity.
“I think federal law will ultimately win,” Stenhouse previously told The Daily Signal, adding, “but who knows how long that will take to adjudicate?” In the meantime, “parents like Jane Doe are suffering right now.”
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