CONCORD, NH — The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Friday upheld a school district’s policy aimed at protecting the privacy of transgender students, ruling that a mother who challenged the policy failed to show that it violated a fundamental parental right.
In a 3-1 ruling, the court affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the mother of a Manchester School District student, who filed suit after accidentally discovering that her child had asked to be called by a name typically associated with a different gender at school.
The policy states, among other things, that “school personnel may not release information that could reveal a student’s transgender status or gender non-affirming presentation to others unless required to do so by law or unless the student has authorized such release.”
“By its terms, the policy does not directly impinge on a parent’s ability to raise and care for his or her child,” Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald wrote. “We cannot conclude that any interference with parental rights that might result from the failure to disclose has constitutional dimensions.”
Senior Associate Justice James Bassett and Justice Patrick Donavan agreed. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Melissa Countway said she believes the policy infringes on the fundamental right to parenthood.
“Because accurate information in response to parents’ questions about a child’s expressed gender identity is essential to the parents’ ability to serve and guide their child, I conclude that a school’s withholding of such information violates the parents’ fundamental right to raise and care for their child,” she wrote.
Neither attorneys for the school district nor the plaintiff responded to phone calls seeking comment Friday. An attorney who filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of a transgender student who supports the policy praised the decision.
“We are pleased that the court’s decision affirms what we already know — that students deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and have the right to freely express who they are without fear of being forcibly outed,” Henry Klementowicz of the ACLU of New Hampshire said in a statement.
The issue has come up repeatedly in the state legislature, most recently with a bill that would have required school officials to respond “fully and honestly” to parents who ask questions about their children. It passed the Senate but died in the House in May.
“The Supreme Court’s decision underscores the importance of electing people who will defend the rights of parents against a public school system that thinks it knows more about each individual child’s education than parents do,” Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, a Republican, said in a statement.