LUDLOW, Massachusetts (Alliance Defending Freedom) — Across the country, some school officials have inexplicably decided to “socially transition” children behind their parents’ backs and even over their express instructions to the contrary.
In New Jersey, a school district – citing state law and its own policy – secretly treated Chris Heaps’ daughter as a boy, defying his explicit instructions to refer to her only as a girl. And in Michigan, school officials began treating Dan and Jennifer Mead’s eighth-grade daughter as a boy behind their backs and took steps to conceal their actions from them.
Alliance Defending Freedom is already defending the rights of parents like Chris, Dan, and Jennifer in court. But unfortunately, a school district in Massachusetts has joined the growing list of those trampling on parental rights. That’s why ADF, alongside the Child & Parental Rights Campaign, has appealed the Foote v. Ludlow School Committee case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
School district imposes gender ideology on children
Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri have two children who attended Baird Middle School in Ludlow, Massachusetts. When their son and daughter were just 12 and 11 years old, respectively, they learned that Ludlow school officials were pushing gender ideology on their children. School officials were doing this behind the parents’ backs and encouraging Stephen and Marissa’s children to question their own identity.
In one instance, a Ludlow official asked incoming sixth graders, including Stephen and Marissa’s children, to announce their “gender identity” and preferred pronouns in their bio videos describing who they were. On other occasions, school employees also sent the daughter unsolicited LGBTQ-themed video suggestions through her school Google account, and a “nonbinary” librarian gave her materials promoting exploration of alternate gender identities.
Unsurprisingly, these actions negatively impacted the young students. Stephen and Marissa’s children both began to question their gender. Their daughter, in particular, continued to struggle with her “gender identity” and other issues. She went to a teacher to share details about these challenges, and the teacher passed on her concerns to the parents.
Stephen and Marissa hired a professional therapist to help their daughter, and they asked school officials not to have any private conversations with their daughter so that they could address her struggles as a family. Unfortunately, that was when the school’s collaboration with the parents ceased.
Deceiving students and deceiving parents
Rather than listening to the parents’ instructions, Ludlow officials decided they knew better. They began “socially transitioning” Stephen and Marissa’s daughter and actively concealing it from them.
For example, a counselor from Baird Middle School and other school officials regularly met with the daughter and encouraged her to identify as “genderqueer” and start using a male name. They also started to refer to her using “nonbinary pronouns” like fae/faerae/aer, ve/ver, xe/xem, or ze/sir.
In addition, the school counselor encouraged the daughter to consider using male bathrooms where middle-school boys undressed and called into question whether her parents were providing her with “appropriate care.”
Likewise, the librarian directed Stephen and Marissa’s daughter to “Translate Gender,” an LGBT-activist organization with which the librarian was affiliated.
All the while, the school hid its actions from Stephen and Marissa by using their daughter’s real name and female pronouns when talking to the parents but using a different name and inaccurate pronouns when speaking with their daughter alone. The school counselor told staff members not to tell Stephen and Marissa about their daughter’s use of a male name at school. When one concerned teacher eventually told them during a private conversation, the school district fired her.
Defending parental rights
After Stephen and Marissa found out about the school’s actions, they again instructed school officials to only use their daughter’s real name and not discuss gender identity issues with her. But the school continued to ignore them. Previously, the superintendent defended these actions by claiming that school officials were following the district’s protocol.
During a public meeting, the superintendent called parental rights a “thinly veiled … camouflage” for “intolerance, prejudice and bigotry against [so-called] LGBTQ individuals,” saying that Ludlow “need[ed] to do more,” not less, to inculcate gender ideology in kids. The school committee chair also demeaned parents’ concerns about secretly “transitioning” children as “prejudice and bigotry.”
When it became clear that the school would continue flouting their parental rights, Stephen and Marissa filed a lawsuit, represented by Child & Parental Rights Campaign. Sadly, a federal district court dismissed their case, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed dismissal (although on different grounds).
At the First Circuit, Alliance Defending Freedom supported this case by filing an amicus brief in support of parental rights. After that court affirmed the dismissal, ADF joined Child & Parental Rights Campaign as co-counsel and, in July 2025, we asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
Schools should partner with parents to educate their children, not treat them as obstacles. When school officials lie to parents about their children, it is kids who are harmed.
Foote v. Ludlow School Committee
- April 2022: Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, represented by Child & Parental Rights Campaign, filed a lawsuit against Ludlow School Committee for violating their parental rights.
- December 2022: Stephen and Marissa’s lawsuit was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. They appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
- March 2023: ADF attorneys filed an amicus brief in support of parental rights at the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
- February 2025: The First Circuit affirmed dismissal of Stephen and Marissa’s lawsuit.
- July 2025: ADF and Child & Parental Rights Campaign asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
Reprinted with permission from Alliance Defending Freedom.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
