Preliminary Injunction Granted Regarding Gender Identity Instruction

06.18.2025

On May 12, 2025, a California District Court granted, in part, a preliminary injunction to parents who requested a school district be prevented from discussing topics related to gender identity in an elementary school “buddy program” without giving prior parental notification and providing parents an opportunity to “opt out” from such discussions. The Court granted the preliminary injunction but limited its applicability to the buddy program, specifically. The Court declined to extend the ruling to school activities outside of the program.

In S.E. et al., v. Andree Grey et al., parents filed suit, objecting to content discussed in a buddy program that paired 5th grade students with kindergarten students, acting as mentors in classroom activities. In the buddy program class session being challenged, the class teachers selected the book My Shadow is Pink, which discusses a child’s struggles with conforming to traditional societal gender roles. Although the term “gender identity” does not appear in the book, the author describes the story as a children’s book on the subject of gender identity. During the buddy program, the teacher read the book, and the 5th grade students then engaged in an art project with their paired kindergarten students where the kindergarten students identified what color they associated with their own shadow.

The parents argued they should have been given advance notice of the activity and the opportunity to opt out their child from participation in the buddy activity based on conflicts with the religious training and beliefs of the parents of the student. This would be similar to the opt outs that are allowed by the California Healthy Youth Act when topics of gender identity are discussed in the context of comprehensive sex education. The parents alleged that the course content violated the Free Speech Clause, the Free Exercise Clause, and infringed on their fundamental liberty interests under the 14th Amendment to the United State Constitution.

The Court found that under the applicable standards for a preliminary injunction, the parents met their burden to demonstrate they were likely to prevail on their Free Speech claim on the basis that students were required to participate in the buddy activity. Therefore, the Court granted the preliminary injunction prohibiting the instruction of gender identity topics in the buddy program. The Court stated that “the buddy program class activities and materials shall not cover gender identity topics covered in health instruction, unless Defendants provide parents with advance notice and an opportunity to opt out.” However, the Court limited the injunction solely to instruction in that particular buddy program, stating the parents had “not articulated any claims based on school activities outside that program to warrant a preliminary injunction.”

AALRR will continue to monitor this case and related judicial decisions as this area in law develops in California. If your school or district has any questions regarding the impacts of this decision, please contact the authors of this alert or your regular AALRR counsel.