Virginia teachers, parents sue school board over gender pronoun policy
Deb Figliola, a teacher involved in the lawsuit, and attorney Kristen Waggoner argue parents don't lose their constitutional rights when enrolling their children in school.
A group of parents and teachers in Virginia are suing Harrisonburg City Public Schools to temporarily block a pronoun policy that prevents teachers from "misgendering" a student or disclosing to a parent if a child picks pronouns that adhere to a different sex than the one they were born with.
Deb Figliola, one of the teachers involved in the lawsuit, joined "Fox & Friends First" Friday to elaborate on her fight for parental rights in the classroom.
"I fought back because I basically don't want to lie to kids," Figliola said. "I don't want to lie to the parents. I want to make sure that the people who are most important in their lives are involved in their lives."
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Figliola and other teachers and parents filed the lawsuit last week in Rockingham County Circuit Court alleging that the school district policy, which requires teachers to use students' preferred names and pronouns at school without parental knowledge, violates their First Amendment rights.
"Think they know better than parents," attorney Kristen Waggoner told co-host Todd Piro.
"Parents don't lose their constitutional rights when they enroll their children in public schools. They do have the right to be able to direct the upbringing of their children and decide what's in their children's best interests. That's not the role of the government."
Glenn Youngkin, governor of Virginia, speaks to members of the media following a cabinet swearing-in ceremony at the Virginia Executive Mansion, in Richmond, Virginia, U.S., on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In a statement, Harrison County Public Schools said they are "dismayed" by the complaint, arguing the lawsuit thwarts the district's "collaborative approach… that we believe best serves the interests of our students, staff and families."
Waggoner called the policy itself an "intentional method to deceive parents" because they were not notified of the policy change in advance.
"This was not sent home to parents, parents were not a part of this," Figlioa added. "It was also presented once at I believe it's called a closed school board meeting, where you can go, but there's not many people there. But that's the only time it was really made public."
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Figliola noted that the teachers against the policy want a "careful" approach that does not harm their students, but rather involves parents.
"Without the parents, we're leaving out a huge part of everything that those kids need… the parents are with them from the beginning, and they're going to be with them after we're gone," she said.