(LifeSiteNews) – Families in California’s Encinitas Union School District (EUSD) will be given advance notice and an opt-out option before their children are subjected to lessons exposing them to gender ideology, after the district declined to appeal the latest ruling against its position.
International Family News reports that Carlos and Jenny Encinas sued the district after their 11-year-old son was forced to participate in lessons that included reading My Shadow Is Pink, a 2021 picture book by Scott Stuart about an effeminate boy who embraces his “shadow,” with his father’s eventual blessing, by wearing a dress to school.
This past May, they secured a preliminary injunction against the district, which determined that schools cannot compel students to violate their religious consciences and that schools must provide advance notice and opt-out where religious beliefs are concerned. This week, the district decided to abandon its appeal, leaving that ruling the final word on the case.
“We are glad that the school district saw the writing on the wall and withdrew their appeal in light of Supreme Court precedent and the District’s preliminary injunction loss,” said Kayla Toney, an attorney with First Liberty, which represented the family.
EUSD drew national attention last year when parents revolted at school board meetings over the use of books like My Shadow Is Pink, and two years earlier when it sent out a Halloween party flyer featuring a “family friendly” drag show that was sponsored by a San Francisco “gender reassignment” center and a homosexual nightclub. The district eventually pulled the flyer, admitting it did “not mee(t) district approval criteria.”
The indoctrination of children with left-wing ideology on sexuality, race, and other agenda items has long been a major concern in American public schools, from libraries to drag events to classroom materials to even “transitioning” troubled children without parental input. Many schools have also displayed hostility to the rights and employment of individual teachers who refuse to go along with such agendas.
The Trump administration has taken steps to depoliticize public education, including by ordering the elimination of federal funds to schools that continue diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and by reversing the Biden administration’s infusion of gender ideology into Title IX rules.
