Parents Defending Education (PDE) settled its case with Linn-Mar Community Schools in Iowa yesterday. The district agreed to rescind a policy that prohibited an “intentional and/or persistent refusal by staff or students to respect a student’s gender identity” — in other words, it would punish students or staff for “misgendering” a student.
The original case filed in 2022 also challenged Linn-Mar’s “parental exclusion policy,” a policy that allowed students to seek a “gender support plan” to begin a gender transition without their parents’ knowledge. Upon pressure from PDE, Linn-Mar rescinded that policy, and the state of Iowa enacted a law that bans schools from giving “false or misleading information to a parent or guardian of their child’s gender identity or intention to transition.”
Linn-Mar said in a statement that “the Board believes the time and resources of the district are better spent looking forward than continuing to defend a lawsuit about a policy that has not been in effect for nearly a year. This district’s insurance company will pay $20,000 to resolve this claim and avoid the need for further litigation,” and also re-upped the district’s “ongoing commitment to support all learners and to provide a safe and affirming school environment for transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming students and their families within the parameters of the law.”
Former vice president Mike Pence brought attention to the case many times, saying last year that “the strength of our nation is tied to the strength of our families, and we will not stand idly by as the Radical Left attempts to indoctrinate our children behind parents’ backs.”
PDE has uncovered more than one thousand school districts that have similar policies as Linn-Mar’s now-rescinded one, policies which allow schools to conceal a child’s gender transition from his parents.