It immediately became a test case on the sometimes conflicting delineation of free speech, religious freedom, student privacy, parental rights and state versus federal law. AdvertisementAhmad Suntani holds a sign calling for parents rights in a demonstration outside an Orange Unified School District board meeting in 2023. The result is that state law protects the rights of school employees to keep students’ gender identity confidential. Meanwhile, according to Benitez’s ruling, federal law protects the rights of school employees to do exactly the opposite. Teachers and school staff have a federal constitutional right to accurately inform the parent or guardian of their student when the student expresses gender incongruence.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 05, 2026 16:02 UTC