(Alliance Defending Freedom) — Parents rightly expect schools to coordinate with them on things pertaining to their children. From school-sponsored field trips to whether their child can be given an Advil, parents know best when it comes to their children. But increasingly, parents are being kept in the dark on something far more serious.
In a recent debate, Alliance Defending Freedom President, CEO, and Chief Counsel Kristen Waggoner warned that, by some estimates, nearly 6,000 public schools have been infected by policies to socially transition children—such as changing names and pronouns—without any parental involvement.
Such policies aren’t merely an educational choice, as some have claimed, that should remain in the hands of the school. They are a constitutional and relational rupture, and a grave violation of parental rights.
As Kristen pointed out, if a parent must sign off before their teenager takes an Advil, why should a school feel empowered to remap their child’s identity without parental consent?
This is not a fringe concern. It’s become mainstream in numerous districts across the country.
Parental rights take center stage at Kristen Waggoner’s Federalist Society debate
On November 8, Kristen participated in the 17th Annual Rosenkranz Debate of the Federalist Society. This year’s theme focused on parental rights in public schools. The question being debated: whether parents have a constitutional right to know and consent to public school facilitation of their children’s social transition to a new gender identity. On the other side of the debate was Mary Anne Case, a law professor from the University of Chicago.
Kristen opened by telling the story of Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, the parents of an 11-year-old girl, one of the many American children affected by these policies.
“Nearly five years ago, Marissa Silvestri received a phone call from a public middle school teacher informing her that her daughter, whom we will call Jane, was feeling depressed and questioning her self-image,” Kristen began. “Marissa had noticed this, too. And so she and Stephen Foote, Jane’s father, hired a therapist to help Jane with her mental health struggles.
“They notified the school’s teachers, the counselors, and the principal that they were getting Jane the help that she needed and asked that the school not have any private conversations with Jane about these matters so that they could address them as a family and with the proper professional help.”
The kicker: “Not one person responded to that request. And as it turns out, that wasn’t an accident.”
READ: Students can’t be forced to use transgender, ‘preferred’ pronouns, court rules
Against the express instructions of both Marissa and Stephen, Jane’s school began meeting with their daughter to encourage her to socially transition from female to “gender queer.”
“They directed her to trans propaganda online. They used a new masculine name, prohibited anyone at school from using her real name, addressed Jane with non-binary pronouns, and allowed Jane to use male-only restrooms,” Kristen continued. “In private communications with Jane, the school counselor also questioned Stephen and Marissa’s choice of mental health professionals and implied that Jane needed help from school officials, not her parents.”
The only reason Stephen and Marissa caught wind of any of this is because the teacher who had originally called them disclosed what was really going on.
The school responded by firing that teacher.
For anyone who cares about parental rights, Jane’s situation should be entirely unacceptable. And that’s why ADF, alongside the Child & Parental Rights Campaign, has appealed the parents’ case, Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kristen’s debate strikes a chord on social media
My son can’t even go on a field trip or take an Advil without my consent. So why do schools think they have the right to “transition” a child without asking Mom & Dad?
Tradition, precedent, and the Constitution are on the side of parents. pic.twitter.com/Fh4MHaMlXA
— Kristen Waggoner (@KristenWaggoner) November 8, 2025
Kristen further argued that there’s a very good reason why schools need to ask for parental consent on various issues.
“There’s a reason that my 17-year-old boy needs to get my consent from the school before he goes, even to a pumpkin patch, or takes a pill that’s an Advil,” Kristen said. “And that’s because I am the parent and the school recognizes that.
“And yet we are willing to disrupt the parental relationship. A school official thinks that it has that kind of authority. That is not constitutional, and it doesn’t serve a compelling interest, nor is it narrow-tailored.”
She further stressed: “I have the right to direct my child’s education and my child’s upbringing.”
Kristen’s X post sparked all manner of response, from those agreeing with her and those acting like these sorts of secret social transitions weren’t actually happening.
Thankfully, Kristen brought the receipts.
🧵 A Massachusetts school secretly “transitioned” an 11-year-old girl against her parents’ clear instructions.
Last week, @ADFLegal and @cprc_official asked the Supreme Court to hear their case. It’s an important one for several reasons. 1/ pic.twitter.com/MuwVOg37Nl
— Kristen Waggoner (@KristenWaggoner) July 23, 2025
But it’s not just the Foote case. ADF is standing up for parental rights across the country, as Kristen further shared:
Rockford Public School District (MI):https://t.co/Md6jIf5Ix5
Ludlow School Committee (MA):https://t.co/WXhGlrpGbi
Skaneateles Central School District (NY):https://t.co/3UwMxTh79k
Delaware Valley Regional High School Board of Education (NJ):https://t.co/GOnqyNIFgR
Houston… https://t.co/RKsiBt5C0P
— Kristen Waggoner (@KristenWaggoner) November 9, 2025
- In Mead v. Rockford Public School District, Dan and Jennifer Mead were seeking help for their middle-school daughter, who had fallen behind in her studies. Despite assurances that the school would work with the Meads, the school was secretly socially transitioning their daughter while actively hiding it from them. ADF filed a lawsuit on the parents’ behalf in Michigan.
- In Vitsaxaki v. Skaneateles Central School District, ADF attorneys are representing a New York mother whose daughter was socially transitioned and treated as a boy by school officials, without her parents’ knowledge or consent.
- In Osborn v. Houston Independent School District, a Texas high school secretly referred to a girl as a boy over multiple school years, despite repeated contrary instructions from her parents.
These cases are all very real and an important stand for ADF and its clients to take. As Kristen argued during her debate, these fundamental parental rights are clearly respected when it comes to Advil or field trips.
So why are parental rights being ignored when it comes to an issue as serious as changing a child’s gender identity?
Kristen corrects the gaslighting on social media
Gaslighting, for those unfamiliar, is a form of psychological manipulation that causes someone to distrust their perception of reality. And Kristen wasn’t going to stand for that in the social media comments. She quickly called out the critics that began flooding her viral posts of clips of her speaking at the debate.
My replies are full of leftists pretending that they’ve never heard of a social transition, and that the only way for someone to “transition” is to have surgery.
(Yet when a man wants to “transition” and enter the women’s room, they’ll say identifying as a woman is enough.)… https://t.co/GEtkjFZfKN
— Kristen Waggoner (@KristenWaggoner) November 9, 2025
“My replies are full of leftists pretending that they’ve never heard of a social transition, and that the only way for someone to ‘transition’ is to have surgery,” Kristen posted.
“(Yet when a man wants to ‘transition’ and enter the women’s room, they’ll say identifying as a woman is enough.)”
She added: “This won’t fly. You don’t get to stoke a social contagion that harms children across America and then pretend it doesn’t exist.”
Kristen then laid out the bare facts of the matter to respond directly to these comments:
- Secret social transitions aren’t just real, they’re policy (by some estimates) in nearly 6,000 public schools across the country.
- More than 30 legal cases have been filed challenging policies that empower schools to socially transition children without parental consent.
- Even pro-transition experts warn that mental health professionals and parents should be involved in social transitions since it’s a form of medical treatment.
- Studies confirm that the vast majority of children experiencing gender dysphoria will eventually desist. But desistance rates collapse in the face of social transition.
Given those four points and the number of parental rights cases that ADF is involved with, it’s clear that secret social transitions are a very real, very ominous problem for any parent who just wants to help their child through a tough time.
For proponents of gender ideology, gaslighting is nothing new. What begins as denial (“That’s not really happening”) will soon become “Okay, it’s happening, but it’s so rare,” which then becomes “Okay, this is happening, but it’s actually a good thing.”
Thankfully, ADF has already been combatting these efforts for years. And we will work tirelessly to make sure that secret social transitions are, in fact, as non-existent as Kristen’s critics would have you believe.
Reprinted with permission from the Alliance Defending Freedom.
