"Transition" Without Parental Consent

HAVERTOWN, PA -- The school district of Haverford Township has a harmful policy that permits school staff to facilitate so-called "transition plans" for gender-confused students using taxpayer funds and without parental consent. Policy 259 was adopted by the Haverford Township School Board in 2017 and, as addressed in Liberty Counsel's letter to the school board, has violated the law.

Policy 259 and its administrative regulation permit school staff to create a social and medical "transition" plan for students who are gender-confused and want hormone drug injections and "gender reassignment" surgery. This policy permits the school to coordinate with health care providers and licensed professionals, seek Medicaid funding, and file "health insurance claims," all without informing parents until it is too late to reverse. School personnel are generally forbidden from disclosing information about a minor's asserted "gender identity" to the student's own parents/guardians, without the consent of the child. Policy 259 also permits gender-confused students to force other students into opposite-sex rooming arrangements on overnight trips, without notice to or consent by other students or their parents. It also allows gender-confused students to use the restrooms, locker rooms, and showers of their choice. Students, teachers, and employees are also forced to adopt the beliefs of others about sex and gender, and to speak using only gender pronouns consistent with other people's beliefs, instead of objective reality. "A school nurse cannot administer aspirin to a student without parental consent, nor can a student go on a field trip without parental permission, but the Haverford School District will give harmful drugs to minors without parental knowledge or consent," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "Parents send their children to school expecting them to get an appropriate education, not to secretly take harmful drugs and mutilate their bodies. The school board must rescind this policy immediately," said Staver.

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