A Wisconsin parent is suing her school district after a middle school orchestra teacher assembled students to announce that he was undergoing transgender treatment because his parents didn’t accept him for who he was as a child.
Just before the end of the school year in June, students were gathered for the announcement by middle school orchestra teacher Jacob Puccio, a man, who told students he was to be addressed as “Ms. Puccio” from then on.
A scripted statement prepared by Mr. Puccio, also a school counselor, was also read to at least three elementary school classes by the school’s band director, according to the parent’s lawsuit and confirmed by school documents.
Cory Brewer, an attorney for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), a nonprofit that advocates for constitutional rights, is representing the parent, Leah Buchman. Ms. Brewer told The Epoch Times that Ms. Buchman, who has three children in the school district, is disturbed that the school was aware that the assembly was taking place but never notified parents.
Ms. Brewer said her organization decided to file a lawsuit against the school district on behalf of Ms. Buchman after it refused to comply with her request to provide her with a copy of the scripted statement read to the elementary students by Joe McCausland, Eau Claire Area School District (ECASD) director of bands.
The lawsuit was filed on July 25.
“We’ve seen a pattern of a lack of transparency in Eau Claire here in Wisconsin,” Ms. Brewer said. “But this is also going on in school districts around the country. Parents want to be informed about what their kids are taught during school, and they’re being shut out.”
The Epoch Times contacted several ECASD officials about the case, but none responded.
In an email to The Epoch Times, ECASD Communications Manager Teri Piper Thompson said the school has started “a formal investigation” into the “events of the day (and the planning that preceded that day) to determine if there were any missteps under school district policy.”
Mr. Puccio also didn’t respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times.
Last September, WILL filed a lawsuit against the Eau Claire School Board for adopting a policy that the school isn’t to notify parents about any gender transitions their child is undergoing at school.
Guidelines for the policy state that parents aren’t automatically entitled to know their children’s gender identities but instead must “earn” it.
In establishing the policy, the school board, according to its notes, called any religious objections of parents against gender transition “weaponization of religion against queer people.”
According to WILL, a teacher also hung a poster at school stating, “If your parents aren’t accepting of your identity, I’m your mom now.”
The suit was dismissed because the court found that it didn’t have proper jurisdiction to hear the case, and it’s now on appeal.
In the new case, Mr. McCausland wrote in an email to Ms. Buchman that after talking to Dang Yang, the school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion director, the district concluded that the prepared statement by Mr. Puccio about his gender transition plans was for “verbal presentation only and was not to be shared electronically.”
Ms. Brewer said the school then indicated that they couldn’t release Mr. Puccio’s statement because there was an open investigation into the matter.
In the lawsuit against the school, her organization argues that there’s no such law that exempts a record request because an employee is under investigation, especially a statement that was already read out loud to students in a public school setting.
WILL also pointed out in the suit that Superintendent Michael Johnson said he was “proud of the thoughtfulness and intentionality” behind how the information was shared with students.
“Thus, it was public and approved by the Superintendent,” WILL stated in the suit.
In addition to public disclosure laws, ECASD has a parental notification requirement under its “Teaching About Controversial Issues” policy.
The policy is a vague amalgamation of several parental notification bills introduced around the country.
Under it, the school district is required to notify parents of what are called “pre-planned” controversial issues.
Parents will also have the right to receive, upon request, any information relating to controversial issues discussed at school.
Republicans in New Hampshire unsuccessfully tried to pass a similar bill earlier this year.
The Wisconsin lawsuit joins a growing number of lawsuits across the United States related to parental notification by schools about controversial subjects, mostly sex-related issues.
In New Jersey, Attorney General Matthew Platkin recently filed civil rights lawsuits against three different school boards in the state for requiring parents to be notified about any “gender-affirming” activity involving their children.
Mr. Platkin argues that the parental notification policies discriminate against children for “outing” them to their parents and that they’re unconstitutional and, therefore, illegal.
In Maine, Amber Lavigne filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in April against her school district after learning that a social worker employed by New Castle Schools had secretly provided her 13-year-old daughter with a chest binder.
Ms. Lavigne’s suit, filed on her behalf by the Goldwater Institute, challenges the Great Salt Bay Community School’s policy that calls on schools to conceal any known gender identity activity of students from their parents.
Ms. Brewer said there appears to be a growing trend for schools to deliberately create friction in the relationship between students and their parents.
“There seems to be a lack of a partnership between families and schools, and it’s becoming more adversarial,” she said.
