A California woman received a $100,000 settlement from a school district that she claims coached her young daughter into becoming transgender, then hid the girl’s new gender identity from her.
The Spreckels Union School District agreed to pay Jessica Konen $100,000 to settle a lawsuit she brought against the district, two teachers, and a principal in 2022. The suit alleged that “the teachers, Lori Caldiera and Kelly Baraki, secretly manipulated her then-11-year-old daughter [Alicia], referred to only as A.G., into changing her gender identity and requesting to be treated as a boy, even to the point of using a unisex restroom normally reserved for teachers,” reported The New American.
Furthermore, the school kept Konen from learning of Alicia’s gender switch by referring to her by her given name and feminine pronouns when communicating with her mother, and even gave Alicia reading material telling her how to keep her new identity a secret from her mom, claimed Konen. Then, she alleged, the principal presented Alicia’s new gender identity to her as a fait accompli, whereupon Konen accepted it out of fear of losing custody of her daughter if she refused.
“Konen said she avoided pronouns at first, calling her daughter by terms such as ‘sweetie’ and ‘kiddo’ instead of making a potentially offensive comment,” wrote Fox News. “Their relationship was strained as a result.”
Although Alicia returned to her real gender identity and her relationship with her mother improved after a year of remote schooling, Konen took the school to court.
According to NBC News:
A federal judge approved the settlement last month and later ordered the case dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
The settlement is a compromise between the parties and does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing, specifically stating that the defendants deny any liability.
An independent investigation the school district commissioned by a law firm last year found that the teachers named in Konen’s lawsuit did not “coach” students in changing their gender identities or deceive administrators or parents.
But it was the teachers’ own admission that they do recruit students and hide their transitions from parents that gave both Konen and her daughter insight into exactly what had happened. In video from a California Teachers Association conference leaked to journalist Abigail Shrier, recounted TNA,
Caldiera and Baraki explained that when students were engaged in remote learning during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the teachers “totally stalked what [students] were doing on Google” and used that knowledge, plus their classroom observations, to identify potential recruits for their school’s pro-LGBT “Equality Club.” They further admitted that they intentionally kept no records of who attended club meetings, scheduled the meetings during lunch period rather than after school, and told students not to tell their parents about the club.
Moreover:
Konen says that A.G. first attended an Equality Club meeting at the beginning of her sixth-grade year at the invitation of a friend, but only continued to go because of encouragement from Caldiera. Soon, Caldiera and Baraki were strongly hinting to A.G. that she was both transgender and bisexual, terms that the girl did not even fully understand at the time. Then they convinced her to begin using a boy’s name and wearing boys’ clothing. Worst of all, the teachers “instructed A.G. not to tell her mother about her new identity or new name, saying that her mother might not be supportive of her and that she couldn’t trust her mother,” reads the claim.
Later, Caldiera, by misrepresenting A.G.’s desires to other faculty and administrators, got everyone to call her by her new, male name and pronouns and obtained access to the unisex restroom for her, alleges Konen.
In fact, had they not kept Alicia’s new identity under wraps, teachers and school officials would have violated the school’s Parental Secrecy Policy, which forbids informing parents of students’ gender switches without the students’ permission.
NBC noted that an LGBTQ youth advocacy organization filed a court document arguing that the school’s policy “was in compliance with state law.” That is also the position of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is suing another school district for implementing a policy of telling parents when their kids undergo gender transitions at school.
It is not, however, the position of anyone who values the Constitution or the long-standing tradition that parents, not the state, are responsible for their children’s upbringing.
“Konen’s triumph strongly underscores the principle that parents, not schools, have a natural right to shape their child’s upbringing,” Harmeet Dhillon, one of Konen’s attorneys and the founder of the Center for American Liberty, told NBC in a statement.
“This settlement,” Dhillon added, “sends a loud message to all school districts: attempting to secretly transition a child without parental notification or consent will lead to substantial repercussions.”
Konen told Fox News that while she believes she received justice in the settlement, she’s not going to go quietly into the night.
“[Schools] need to understand their place, and they need to stay in their place. And schools nowadays, they’re awful. So, I’m going to fight this fight and keep fighting this fight,” she said.
She also had a message for other parents.
“Pay attention, ask the questions that are offered. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations because you don’t know what someone’s going through. You don’t know what they’re teaching in schools anymore. Just be active in your kids’ lives and don’t be scared to speak up.”
