New Hampshire top court upholds school transgender student policy

By Nate Raymond

Aug 30 (Reuters) - New Hampshire's top court on Friday upheld a school district's policy that encourages teachers and officials to disclose students' status as transgender or gender to their parents or others without their permission.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court on a 3-1 vote ruled against a mother who had challenged Manchester School District's policy, finding it did infringe a fundamental parenting right protected by the state's constitution.

The ruling marked the first time a state supreme court has weighed in on one of the cases by conservatives and parents challenging school policies that aim to respect requests by transgender students to "out" them to their parents without their consent. Most of the challenges have been filed in federal court.

Lawyers for the mother and school district did respond to requests for comment.

The mother, who went by the pseudonym Jane Doe, sued in 2022 after discovering her child had asked to be referred to by teachers and students by a typically associated with a gender different than the one assigned to the student at birth.

After learning this, the mother informed school officials she would like them to treat her child in accordance with the student's birth gender and use the student's given and pronouns corresponding with the child's biological sex.

But a school principal cited a policy the district first adopted in 2021 to say staff could "disclose a student's choice to parents if asked to."

The mother in her lawsuit argued the policy interfered with her right under the state's constitution to raise and care for her child, a right the state high court had previously recognized as a fundamental liberty interest.

The school district countered that while the mother had a right to parent her child as she wished, her right did include directing how the child was taught and contended the policy did interfere with her rights.

Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald wrote that the policy did directly implicate a parent’s ability to care for a child as it only encouraged -disclosure, rather than mandating it, and does encourage students themselves to hide the information.

"We cannot conclude that any interference with parental rights which may result from -disclosure is of constitutional dimension," MacDonald, an appointee of Republican Governor Chris Sununu, wrote.

The ruling was hailed by the LGBTQ rights group GLAD and by the American Civil Liberties Union, which had filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the New Hampshire Supreme Court to uphold a trial court judge's ruling tossing the mother's case.

"Schools must provide a welcoming and supportive environment for all students," Chris Erchull, a lawyer at GLAD, said in a statement.

Justice Melissa Beth Countway, another Sununu appointee, dissented, saying "accurate information in response to parents’ inquiries about a child's expressed gender identity is imperative to the parents' ability to assist and guide their child."

The case is Doe v. Manchester School District, New Hampshire Supreme Court, No. 2022-0537.

For Doe: Richard Lehmann of Lehmann Major List

For Manchester School District: Meghan Glynn of Drummond Woodsum & MacMahon

Read more:

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Parents challenge Massachusetts' school district's gender identity policy

Parents cannot challenge school gender identity policy, US court rules