Justice Department Probes LA School’s Gender Secrecy Policies Amidst ‘Woke’ Education Debate

The Department of Justice has launched an investigation into a controversial “secrecy policy” at a high school in Los Angeles, which is believed to have contributed to a student’s tragic suicide.

Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, announced the investigation on Thursday, condemning the policy in a forceful statement.

“These so-called ‘woke’ policies not only contradict scientific understanding and undermine constitutionally-protected rights, but they also endanger girls by exposing them to potential physical violence and sexual assault,” Dhillon stated emphatically. “This Justice Department will not tolerate such actions!”

Implemented in 2019, the policy by the Los Angeles Unified School District instructed teachers and staff members to refrain from disclosing a student’s “gender identity” whenever possible. Critics argue this approach effectively kept parents unaware of their child’s decisions regarding gender identity.

The policy explicitly stated, “School personnel shall consider the safety, health, and well-being of the student when deciding whether to disclose the student’s gender identity or expression to parents.”

One California couple claims this policy left them uninformed about significant aspects of their child’s life, a claim they have made in a lawsuit against the school district. The lawsuit was previously reported by The Post last month.

Dylan Parke was already struggling to fit in as a sophomore at Palisades Charter High School in 2019 to 2020 when he told staffers that he would use she/her pronouns and go by the name “Aria.”

Staffers kept his trans declaration a secret — driving a wedge between the child and his desperate parents, court papers said.

The mother, Kathleen Mulligan, inquired the school about what was happening with her son, but educators did not answer Mulligan’s message and “further… denied them the opportunity to participate in the care of their minor son,” the parents alleged.

The secrecy broke the family, Mulligan said, and Parke died by suicide in March 2024 at the age of 19.

The Justice Department’s investigation also revolves around a complaint from a female student who alleged the district ignored her warnings about a perpetrator, the New York Times reported. The school district declined comment to the Times.

The investigation is part of a broader set of actions the Trump administration has taken to reaffirm the parental rights movement and combat “gender identity” politics, such as targeted cuts to funding transgender surgeries.

The state of California has fought to promote such policies like the school district’s, but this year, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked state rules that limit when schools can notify parents if a student comes out as transgender, as well as rules that require teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns.

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