On June 15, 2026, the Board of Education in the School District of the Chathams, New Jersey, held a meeting. The Supreme Court had already ruled — twice — that parents have fundamental rights over what happens to their children in public schools. The board voted to keep hiding student gender transitions from parents anyway.
Two months later, on August 24, they got sued.
The Thomas More Society filed the lawsuit on behalf of Moms for Liberty, whose CEO and founder Tina Descovich has been at the center of parental rights battles nationwide. Senior counsel Christopher Ferrara laid out the core of the case in plain terms: "Parents have standing to challenge a policy like this, which would hide a gender transition from the parents."
The Chathams' policy is not subtle. Students can change their names in official school records. They can use bathrooms and locker rooms aligned with their chosen gender identity. The school's guidance counselor — not the parents — decides how much Mom and Dad get to know about any of it. And if a classmate slips up and uses the wrong pronoun or the student's actual name? According to Descovich, the district's policy "will actually punish children that don't use the demanded new gender identity pronoun." Potential punishment includes suspension.
The policy traces back to 2018 guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education. New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin has noted that Policy 5756 — the specific district rule at issue — is technically non-mandatory. Which raises a fair question: if the state itself says the policy isn't required, and the Supreme Court has ruled that parents have these rights, why is the Chathams board clinging to it like a life raft?
Fox News reported the details of the case, which cites two Supreme Court precedents. The first is Mahmoud v. Taylor, which affirmed parents' right to opt their children out of certain school programs. The second is Mirabelli v. Bonta, decided in March 2026, which reinforced parental authority over what schools can and cannot withhold. "The Supreme Court has ruled twice on these issues," Descovich said. "We know that parents have to have a right to opt out."
Board of Education President Ann Ciccarelli has not publicly addressed how the district reconciles its policy with two separate Supreme Court rulings. That silence is its own answer.
Ferrara pointed to something broader than the legal argument. "This is what happens when you oppose these policies," he said. "You basically are going to be subjected to a vicious public backlash." That's the enforcement mechanism — not law, not precedent, not constitutional authority. Social pressure. The Chathams board isn't following a legal mandate. It's following a cultural one, and hoping the backlash against parents who object will keep anyone from pushing back hard enough.
