ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING: A school district has been sued by the angry parents of a teenage girl, who chose to be identified as a boy for almost six months between 2021 and 2022 at her school institution. The unnamed girl did not tell her parents about it while her school allegedly hid it from them.
As per the Daily Mail, Sweetwater County School District No 1 was sued in April after one of the parents got to know about it while attending a teacher training event in late March 2022. However, the district dismissed their allegations by calling them “false” and “fabricated."
Who are Sean and Ashley Willey?
Sean Willey and his wife, Ashley, decided to take legal action against Sweetwater County School District No 1. Both of them are teachers and have accused the district of not informing them about their child’s preference to be identified as a boy and how they used different pronouns to refer to her.
Willey said, “There are a lot of people that have come out and said they support us and are grateful we’re taking the stance to bring it out and make it known and bring awareness.”
Willey added, “We’ve had quite a few people reach out and say they have kids that have graduated or are about to graduate, or who are still in the system, that have stepped up and said they’ve experienced similar issues with the district. And they weren’t quite sure how to handle it or they were too timid … to make any noise.”
‘We will honor that request’
However, in its defense, the district reportedly claimed that schools were free to address their students as per their “preferred names and pronouns” in private. An email by School District Superintendent Kelly McGovern stated, “If a student is requesting the use of a transgender name and/or pronoun, we will honor that request. It also is not our obligation to notify the parent of this request and we will not do so.”
Also, during a school board meeting in September 2022, School Board Chairwoman Carol Jelaco said that “whatever the student wants is paramount."
The American Civil Liberties Union agreed with it as in a statement, which read, “Even if you are 'out' about your sexual orientation or gender identity at school, if you're not 'out' to your parents at home, and you can reasonably expect that they're not going to find out, then school staff can't tell your family that you are LGBTQ without your permission.”
“Being open about your sexuality in school doesn't mean you automatically give up your right to privacy outside school,” the statement added.
