The issue relates to “an educational activity at odds with Plaintiffs’ religious beliefs,” said the May 12 order issued by U.S. District Judge M. James Lorenz. Plaintiffs in the case are fifth-grade male students, referred to as P.D. and S.E. in court documents, studying at La Costa Heights Elementary School in the Encinitas Union School District, and their parents.
In May 2024, a teacher read a book titled “My Shadow Is Pink” in the plaintiff children’s class. The book is about a boy who likes to wear dresses and play with toys associated with girls.
In the story, the boy’s shadow was pink rather than blue since the child thought he did not “fit in” with his family and peers. The boy gets into a conflict with his father over the issue. The father eventually accepts his son’s pink shadow as reflecting the child’s “innermost self.”
The teacher read the book in preparation for a buddy program where fifth-graders are paired with kindergartners. The two children, who are plaintiffs in the case, were each paired with a kindergartner.
In the program, the children watched a read-along video of the book. Kindergarteners were then asked to “pick a color that represents you,” with fifth-graders asked to draw their buddies’ shadow on the ground using colored chalk.
“Although the class did not involve an explicit discussion of gender identity, the fact that the book addressed this issue was not lost on the students,” the court said. “S.E. described the book as ‘about LGBTQ.’ P.D. described it as ‘about a boy who wanted to change his gender to be a girl.’”
“Because choosing one’s own gender identity is contrary to Plaintiffs’ religious beliefs, they were uncomfortable with the buddy class. Moreover, as mentors, P.D. and S.E. did not wish to affirm the book’s message to their buddies.”
Typically, the Costa Heights Elementary School’s buddy program involved art or garden projects, and the school would list out books students would read in a newsletter sent to parents.
But for this specific class, the school did not list “My Shadow Is Pink” in the newsletter.
When parents confronted the school regarding their failure to notify them on the book’s inclusion, and why they couldn’t opt their children out of the program, the school told them that they had “no right to opt out because the buddy class was not part of a ‘health unit,’” said the order.
Plaintiffs filed the case in September 2024 against school district officials, board members, the school principal, and two teachers.
“Plaintiffs contend, among other things, that Defendants violated P.D.’s rights under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment by compelling him to affirm a message he disagrees with, and which is contrary to his religious beliefs.”
Meanwhile, the defendants argued that parents have no fundamental right to control the information disseminated by public schools to their children.
The court disagreed with this argument, saying that “First Amendment protections apply to students in the school environment.”
“The government may not compel a person to speak the government’s preferred messages,” it said.
Defendants argued P.D. was not compelled in any manner as evidenced by the fact that he did not complain about the issue to his teacher during the class.
The court dismissed this argument as well, saying the child did not complain as he did not wish to “get in trouble.”
Judge Lorenz eventually granted a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs, prohibiting the district from including gender identity topics in the buddy program.
The Epoch Times reached out to the school district for comment.
“No child should be forced to speak a message that violates his religious convictions,” said Nate Kellum, senior counsel at the institute.
“We are grateful for the court’s decision and will continue to fight to ensure that elementary children are not forced to participate in lessons about gender identity that violate their faith.”
A female teacher, who was in support of using the book, said the “California inclusivity and nondiscrimination law mandates that public schools provide inclusive environments for all students … to accommodate diversity of all students.
“I am proud to be a teacher at a district with a fantastic school board that supports the vision of an equitable world, follows both federal and state laws, and supports the teachers to implement this vision.”
At the meeting, Carlos Encinas, a parent involved in the lawsuit, criticized the school district’s decision to keep parents in the dark about the book.
“As parents, we have the right to know what our children are being exposed to, especially when it involves sensitive topics like gender identity,” he said.
