By Daniel Wiessner
Sept 1 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday filed what it said was the first lawsuit of its kind seeking to block public schools in Kansas City, Kansas, from facilitating gender transitioning for transgender students.
The U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit claims a policy adopted by the city’s school district directs staff to develop and implement transitioning plans for children without input from parents.
The lawsuit claims the policy violates federal laws that prohibit school districts from barring parents’ access to their children’s records and that require parents to consent before schools conduct evaluations that could reveal sensitive information.
“The department will not tolerate school districts playing fast and loose with federal law in the service of radical gender ideology,” Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
The Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools has previously said it disagreed with accusations by the Trump administration that it violated federal law. It reiterated on Tuesday it was in full compliance with the law.
The school district said it was disappointed by the DOJ’s decision to sue and will respond through the legal process. The fifth-largest school district in Kansas serves over 20,000 students across nearly 50 school sites.
KCKPS Superintendent Anna Stubblefield told an NBC News affiliate in July the district’s guidance does not ask for information to be withheld from parents and that it was only guidance and not a formal policy.
The Trump administration has threatened public school districts with federal funding cuts over their transgender policies, but the lawsuit is the first by the Justice Department accusing schools of aiding in transitions without parents’ consent.
Trump has cast the gender identity of transgender people as a lie, issued a series of executive actions targeting their rights and stated in a directive that the U.S. government will recognize male and female as the only two sexes.
His administration has also taken steps to ban gender-affirming treatment such as hormone therapy for minors and eliminate federal funding for it.
The Justice Department is also waging a campaign to force healthcare providers across the country to turn over records about transgender youth who received gender-affirming medical care. Several judges have blocked those efforts.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York and Kanishka Singh; Editing by David Gregorio and Bill Berkrot)
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