Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said that secretly transitioning students without parental knowledge violates both constitutional principles and basic ethics, and that schools must focus on education rather than ideological influence.
The issue arose after Carr filed a legal brief supporting a California mother whose daughter was encouraged by school staff to present as a boy in fifth grade without any notification or approval from her parent. According to a press release by Carr, a school counselor advised the child to keep the situation from her mother, and the transition was later abandoned after causing the student increased emotional distress. The mother sued the school district, arguing her parental rights were violated by a policy that withheld such information from parents unless the student consented to disclosure. Though an earlier appeals court ruling allowed the case to move forward, the trial court again sided with the school, prompting Carr and fellow attorneys general to file this most recent brief challenging that outcome, according to a press release by Carr.
Carr said, “This is not about just one parent – it’s about all parents and protecting their rights to direct their child’s care. For any school official to secretly ‘transition’ a student is not just unconstitutional – it’s unconscionable. The classroom must be preserved for education, not indoctrination.”
The legal brief said: “Schools across the nation have adopted similar policies, shutting parents out of the decision-making process whenever a student declines to authorize disclosure. Though the policies vary in content, all impair parents’ fundamental right to be involved in important decisions regarding their children’s mental health and well-being. Here, the district court failed to recognize that this right is deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition and is therefore protected by the Due Process Clause. This Court should correct this error and reverse,” according to Georgia.gov.
Chris Carr was appointed as Georgia’s attorney general by then-Governor Nathan Deal in 2016 and was re-elected in November 2022. Since taking office, he has focused on addressing issues such as human trafficking, gang activity, and opioid misuse. This includes establishing the state’s first Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and Gang Prosecution Unit. Carr served as Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development under Governor Deal from November 2013 to November 2016, according to Georgia.gov.
