21 GOP-led states back Florida parents suing school for creating ‘transgender support plan’
A group of 21 Republican-led states is taking legal action on behalf of parents in Florida who sued their daughter’s school after teachers launched a “transgender support plan” for their 13-year-old without seeking parental consent.
January Littlejohn said her then-13-year-old daughter had a group of friends who were “obsessed” with all things LGBTQ-related, and when three of them began to identify as trans or non-binary, her daughter said that she was confused about her own gender.
Despite taking their daughter to a counselor to help her out of her confusion, the Littlejohns learned that school principals had talked to the youngster about changing her name and which bathroom she wanted to use – without their consent.
As a result, Littlejohn and her husband sued the school for violation of their parental rights in late 2021, and now other state leaders are getting involved.
Littlejohn, center left, and her husband, right, with their family. Littlejohn and her husband are parents of three children. They live in Tallahassee, Florida
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who along with Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, is leading the 21-state letter in support of the Littlejohns, told DailyMail.com that it is “unconscionable” that school districts are “intentionally” exclude parents from decisions.
“Parents have a fundamental and long-standing constitutional right to direct the education and care of their children,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it is happening in schools all over the country. It is high time for the courts to do their job and step in to protect children and end the wake-up call of school administrators violating parents’ rights,” Knudsen continued.
The state leaders filed the brief Tuesday in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
The states that applied in addition to Montana and Florida include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee , Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
The case gained prominence when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tweeted about it as he worked to pass his parental rights bill.
The bill, now passed, prohibits teachers from teaching about “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” in kindergarten through twelfth grade.
He posted on March 28, “The bill I signed today protects Florida parents like January Littlejohn. School officials manipulated her daughter into a “transition” by giving her a masculine name and pronouns without January’s knowledge or consent. This is wrong and today’s legislation will ensure that this does not happen again.’
When school resumed in 2020, Littlejohn told a teacher at Deerlake Middle School in Tallahassee, Florida, about the situation, telling her that she and her husband were not confirming their daughter’s new preferred name and pronouns at home while working on her feelings . , and that they did not feel the transition was in her best interest.
Littlejohn says officials at Deerlake Middle School in Tallahassee, Florida, gave her daughter a ‘transgender support plan’ to fill out after she expressed gender confusion
The case gained prominence when DeSantis tweeted about it on March 28 when he signed his parental rights bill into law
Littlejohn also told the teacher that she was okay with her daughter adopting her favorite name as a nickname at school.
But weeks later, Littlejohn said that after a day of school, her daughter happily told her that she had spoken to officials about changing her name, and that they had asked her which bathroom she wanted to use.
Appalled by the discussion the school had had with her daughter without parental consent, Littlejohn immediately called them and inquired.
She was told by the school counselor and deputy principal that they could not reveal what was discussed at the meeting, and that by law Littlejohn’s daughter had to give permission to inform her parents about or be present at future discussions . .
“My 13-year-old daughter who cannot vote, drink, or enter into any other legal contract without our consent or input,” Littlejohn said in 2021.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen leads 21-state letter in support of the Littlejohns with Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody
Littlejohn says that after several weeks of back and forth with the school district, the principal finally showed her a “transgender nonconforming student support plan” that the school had filled out with her daughter.
“This was a six-page document that she completed with the assistant director, the guidance board, and a social worker I’d never met.”
“They asked her questions that would definitely have affected her safety, such as what bathroom she preferred to use and what gender she preferred to room with on late-night excursions,” Littlejohn said on Fox & Friends First in May.
The document also asked about student preferences for preferred names, pronouns, sports teams and locker rooms, and whether they wanted their parents to be notified of their transition.
“The plan also stated that she would use her birth name when she spoke to us, basically to mislead us about the social transition that had taken place,” Littlejohn said.