CPRC Files Supreme Court Amicus Brief in Polk v. Montgomery County Public Schools

CPRC and Our Duty–USA Urge Supreme Court to Protect Parental Rights and Teachers Who Refuse to Lie

The Child & Parental Rights Campaign, together with Our Duty–USA, has filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in Kimberly Ann Polk v. Montgomery County Public Schools.

We are asking the Court to grant Ms. Polk’s petition for a writ of certiorari and review the Fourth Circuit’s decision dismissing her case.

Ms. Polk, a substitute teacher, was terminated after she refused to follow the school district’s Parental Secrecy Policy. That policy required her to conceal from parents that their children were asserting a discordant identity and rejecting their sex at school. It also required her to use preferred pronouns that did not correspond to the children’s sex.

Ms. Polk objected on religious grounds. She believes God created humans male and female and that children are not “born in the wrong body,” and rightfully objects to schools deceiving parents. She requested accommodations that would allow her to avoid violating her sincerely held beliefs. The district refused and fired her.

Why This Case Matters
Senior Litigation Counsel Mary E. McAlister, Counsel of Record on the brief, explains:

“The Polk case is critically important. It addresses the ubiquitous problem of school district secret transition policies that violate fundamental parental rights to direct mental health decision-making and to direct the religious upbringing of their children. It also addresses the critical issues of teachers’ rights to not facilitate the violation of parental rights through secret transition policies and to not have to violate their own free speech and free exercise rights by being compelled to lie to parents and vulnerable children.”

What Our Brief Argues
Our amicus brief emphasizes that Montgomery County’s Parental Secrecy Policy violates parents’ fundamental constitutional rights in two key ways:

• It conceals information critical to parents’ right to direct the upbringing and make mental health decisions for their children. Earlier this year in Mirabelli v. Bonta, the Supreme Court recognized that parents have a fundamental right to receive information necessary to exercise their rights when their children exhibit signs of gender dysphoria at school.

• It also interferes with parents’ fundamental right to direct the religious upbringing of their children. The same school district was involved in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which addressed an “LGBTQ-inclusive” book policy. Our brief shows how the secrecy policy goes even further in violating parental free exercise rights.

Ms. Polk’s requested accommodations would have protected those parental rights. The district’s refusal and her termination further the violation.

The brief was prepared by CPRC attorneys Mary E. McAlister (Counsel of Record) and Vernadette R. Broyles, working with C. Erin Friday of Our Duty–USA.

Read the Brief
You can read the full amicus brief we filed here: [link to PDF of the brief]

Support the Fight!
The only way to root out this systemic evil that has captured our institutions is to fight and win in court and CPRC continues to fight in every way possible. But we cannot do so without your help. Please consider supporting CPRC’s ongoing work to defend parental rights and protect children.