CHATHAM, N.J. — Another New Jersey school district is headed to federal court over the increasingly explosive question of whether public schools can keep parents in the dark about their own children.
Moms for Liberty has sued the School District of the Chathams Board of Education over Policy 5145.7, a transgender student policy that the parental-rights organization argues violates both parents’ and students’ constitutional rights.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court and backed by the Thomas More Society, targets provisions that plaintiffs say permit school officials to conceal a student’s asserted gender transition from his or her parents.
And that’s only the beginning of the complaint.
According to Moms for Liberty, the Chathams policy permits students to use different names and pronouns at school without parental notice or consent, provides access to sports teams, locker rooms and changing facilities based on gender identity, and permits referrals to outside LGBTQ organizations without informing parents.
The lawsuit also takes aim at provisions that plaintiffs contend could result in students being disciplined for refusing to use another student’s preferred name or pronouns — adding a First Amendment compelled-speech fight to the parental-rights battle.
“Parents are the primary educators and caregivers of their children, not school boards, not counselors, and not ideologues pushing secret gender transitions behind closed doors,” said Moms for Liberty CEO and co-founder Tina Descovich.
The organization is asking the federal court to find Policy 5145.7 unconstitutional and prevent Chathams from enforcing it unless significant changes are made.
The timing isn’t accidental.
The U.S. Supreme Court intervened in Mirabelli v. Bonta earlier in 2026; that California case involved restrictions on notifying parents about their children’s asserted gender transitions. The justices vacated a Ninth Circuit stay as it applied to the parent plaintiffs, allowing a lower-court injunction to take effect while the litigation continues.
That wasn’t a final nationwide ruling striking down every school gender-identity policy, but Moms for Liberty and the Thomas More Society contend that the Supreme Court nevertheless sent a pretty unmistakable constitutional warning.
Chathams apparently sees things differently.
According to the complaint, Board of Education President Ann Ciccarelli told the public at a June 15th meeting that the Supreme Court’s Mirabelli decision was “not binding on public school districts in New Jersey.”
The Thomas More Society says the district was subsequently given an opportunity to revise its policy.
It didn’t.
Now the argument moves from the school board meeting to a federal courtroom.
“When Thomas More Society prevailed at the Supreme Court, we made a promise: any school board or district that kept hiding a child’s so-called ‘gender transition’ from parents, or that punished kids for refusing to bow down to an ideology they don’t believe, would be held accountable,” said Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Christopher Ferrara.
For Chathams taxpayers, parents and school officials alike, the next lesson on parental rights will be delivered by a federal judge.
