A lawsuit by three parents claims a Pittsburgh-area school district is violating their civil and constitutional rights by teaching gender dysphoria and transgender transitioning to first grade students.

The three parents in the Mount Lebanon School District are seeking a court order to stop the instruction and a jury trial to decide both compensating and punitive financial damages. According to Fox News, the suit was filed by three mothers who are seeking a court order to stop the gender-related instruction at Jefferson Elementary School in Pittsburgh.

The suit targets the district, its superintendent, the school board, and Jefferson Elementary first grade teacher Megan Williams. It also names other school officials and an elementary school principal as well.

The mothers allege Williams did not respect their parental rights with her “direct classroom instruction” on gender dysphoria and use of books on the subject.

The lawsuit points out the “unique perspectives and views” that Williams might have as the mother of a transgender child who is the same age as her students, but noted that such a fact “does not give her the right to impose those views on a captive audience of six- and seven-year-old children.”

“Williams also began the process of interjecting her own personal life and views into the classroom, explaining that her child had worn an ‘Elsa dress’ for Halloween,” the complaint also said, alleging that Williams “explained to her students that sometimes ‘parents are wrong’ and parents and doctors ‘make mistakes’ when they bring a child home from the hospital.”

The suit argues that parents have a constitutional right to “control the education of their (children)” and “to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.”

“This lawsuit is not about politics. It is not anti-transgender. It is not about censorship. It is not about banning books. It is not about precluding appropriate DEI initiatives,” it reads. “Rather, it is about Plaintiffs’ parental rights and each of their respective decisions not to want their six- or seven-year-old child to receive first-grade classroom instruction on gender dysphoria or transgender transitioning from their first-grade teacher.”

The lawsuit also claims that the district violated its own polices by not listing gender dysphoria and transgender transitioning as part of the curriculum online and also alleges that parents were not given the opportunity to excuse their children from such instruction if it does not conform with how they would like to touch on such topics.

It also says that until recently the district had a policy of notifying parents and letting them opt out when topics that some might consider sensitive were taught in class. It says those topics have included the Holocaust, slavery, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, sex education, Black Lives Matter, and Planned Parenthood.

The lawsuit alleges Williams encouraged children not to tell their parents about her instruction according to WTAE-TV. The lawsuit raises other unrelated topics, alleging Williams does not have students in her class participate in the Pledge of Allegiance, and claiming that her emphasis on racial justice is “strident.”

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