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New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin is stepping in to get a number of local school districts to repeal policies that require staff to notify parents of their child’s decision to change gender, and is calling for “distress” lawsuits against them for allegedly “discriminatory” policies.
“Without a doubt, the discriminatory policies passed by these education boards, if enacted, will harm our children and pose a serious risk to their safety,” Platkin said.
Nikki Stouffer, the founder of the New Jersey Project, a union of parents from across The Garden State, said the policy is not only what parents want, but what her group has been pushing to implement.
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New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy speaks to members of the media following a meeting with President Biden at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., on Friday, February 10, 2023. (Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We want transparency with the school,” she told Fox News’ Will Cain on Sunday. “Our kids are safer if we know more about what’s going on at school. Why on earth would the AG and (Governor Phil) Murphy think it would be appropriate to hide any kind of information from parents?”
“(They think) that we would only hurt our kids if we found out they were being bullied and were at risk of suicide,” she continued.
The three school districts in Platkin’s line of fire — Middletown School District, Marlboro School District and Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District — approved their transgender student policies last Tuesday, a day before the trial.
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New Jersey officials are pushing back against three school districts for allegedly violating state guidelines for transgender students. (Fox news)
The controversial policy states that faculty and staff must warn parents if their child begins using a different name, pronoun or bathroom that conflicts with their biological sex.
State officials, on the other hand, argue that the students’ “outing” will not only facilitate a more harmful environment at home, but would mean that schools have failed to promote “safe” learning environments.
“He (Governor Murphy) thinks we are monsters. He thinks we would torture our children. We would never torture our children. We spent two years trying to get the masks off because He tortures our kids and now that he’s losing control of his school boards because we’re getting people elected, fighting the NJEA (New Jersey Education Association), getting our parents in to make these kinds of changes… He’s going using the AG to make sure we can’t do these things.
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Marlboro School District is among those being sued by New Jersey officials over policies that require school leaders to inform parents of their child’s intent to change gender. (Fox & Friends Weekend/Screengrab)
“He waged war against parents and children for three years,” Stouffer later added.
Officials’ lawsuit against the district has failed, furthermore alleging that the policy violates existing state guidelines for transgender students, which state that parents should not be informed about what their child is doing in school.
When the Attorney General’s office was reached for comment on the lawsuit, the Fox News Digital office referred to a press release published last week criticizing the district policy as “illegitimate.”
“As the complaints allege, the policies of the Middletown, Marlboro and Manalapan-Englishtown Boards expressly target transgender, gender nonconforming and gender nonbinary students by selecting them for differential treatment, requiring parental notification for those students, but not their peers,” the release read in part.
“The complaints also allege that parental notification policies have divergent impacts on transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary youth: By requiring school staff to “out” these students to their parents, the policy empowers these students exposes them to the potential for serious harm to their safety and mental health. The policy also ignores and contradicts New Jersey Department of Education guidelines regarding the confidentiality and privacy of such information.”
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Platkin said in the press release, “In New Jersey, we will not tolerate any action by schools that threatens the health and safety of our youth. Without question, the discriminatory policies adopted by these Boards of Education will go into effect, will harm our children. and pose a serious risk to their safety,” adding, “Simply put, this policy violates our laws, and we will not budge on protecting our LGBTQ+ community – especially our children – from discrimination.”
Taylor Penley is a production assistant at Fox News.
