A Colorado couple is suing a school and state officials after a counselor helped their 14-year-old daughter become a boy in class while keeping them in the dark.
The parents, named John and Jane Doe in court documents, say Brighton High School in suburban Denver helped the anxious and depressed teen transition without notifying him.
One counselor even connected the girl with a therapist, who was trans, and suggested she take cross-sex hormones and have her breasts surgically removed.
The daughter, known as AD and now 16, identifies as a girl again and regrets her transition.
The parents are asking for a jury trial, damages, payment of their legal fees, and for state laws and school policies to be changed so that other families are not harmed.
Brighton High School, in suburban Denver, is among the 33 schools in District 27J.
Colorado has been rocked by debates over whether sex-change drugs are the best option for transgender youth.
It is the latest in a series of lawsuits targeting teachers and doctors who help children transition, despite mounting evidence that medical sex changes can have harmful consequences.
“It all happened in secret, for months and months, without our clients knowing,” said the couple’s attorney, Eric Sell of the conservative Center for American Liberty.
‘Parents have a constitutional right to consent and be informed about treatment provided by the government.’
“This is not something that schools should do on a one-off basis, following the child’s instructions,” he added.
School District 27J, which is responsible for about 23,000 students in 33 schools, told The Mail it could not comment on an ongoing lawsuit. State officials did not respond to our emails.
According to the 523-page lawsuit, AD suffered from depression, anxiety and identified as a boy after starting high school in 2022.
She told a counselor, who focused on the girl’s trans identity and whether her parents would support her, rather than her other mental health issues, it is alleged.
The counselor helped AD change her pronouns and name to ZD in class, flagging her in a school database, so teachers knew to keep her parents out of the matter, documents show.
The girl was referred to a trans therapist. For these online sessions, she used the counselor’s office and computer, so her parents wouldn’t find out.
In them, the therapist told him: “You are a child.”
“They discussed taking testosterone and having a mastectomy as next steps” in their transition, the documents show.
But the girl’s withdrawal and anxiety worsened.
In March 2023, the parents learned of their daughter’s transition and ended her therapy sessions.
AD told her parents she wanted to take testosterone and have a mastectomy, but her mom and dad were against it.
Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova (left) and Attorney General Philip Weiser are named in the lawsuit.
Protests over gender and sex changes have rocked Colorado, leading to this protest at an appeals court in Denver in May.
“They wanted their daughter to explore the root of her distress through therapy rather than seeing transition as a panacea that would solve all her problems,” the case states.
In March 2024, AD began to regret her transition and began living as a girl again.
“She now believes that her previous identification as a boy was a subconscious attempt to mask her other mental health issues,” the lawsuit says.
Still, the parents are concerned that her LGBTQ+ classmates will not accept her as a girl again and may “pressure” her to change her sex again, the documents show.
This is made more difficult because the school is LGBTQ-friendly, with rainbow flags and clubs, while being “neutral” toward straight children, the lawsuit says.
Parents say the state, the Department of Education and School District 27J violated their constitutional rights by encouraging secret sex changes.
It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on August 7 and addresses the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
It focuses on a new state law requiring schools to use the preferred name and pronoun of students who change their sex, and the 27J Schools policy that prevents high schools from notifying parents.
The lawsuit names Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova and Attorney General Philip Weiser.
Colorado state Rep. Brandi Bradley, a Republican, says this shows why the Democrat-led law, known as HB24-1039, was ill-conceived.
“We told Democrats there would be lawsuits and rightly so,” Bradley posted.
‘Counselors, teachers and schools have no right to assume a parental role that leads children down a path of no return.’
He urged more parents to sue schools and educate their children privately.
The court documents include the Cass Review, a recent British report that found weak evidence for gender-affirming care for trans youth and led to restrictions on puberty blockers for children in the UK.
Parents are clashing with teachers across the United States over whether transgender teens can change sex in class without their knowledge.
Schools are under pressure to help trans students in a contentious political environment, where gender and sex have become the front lines of the culture wars between progressives and conservatives.
School administrators have said they want to involve parents but must follow a patchwork of federal and state guidelines designed to protect student privacy, combat discrimination and welcome all comers.
Against this backdrop, parents, children, teachers and therapists are faced with difficult decisions about rising rates of transgenderism, mental health issues, peer pressure and whether affirmation on demand is always the best response.
The number of transgender children between the ages of 13 and 17 has doubled to about 1.4 percent, an analysis of government health surveys shows.
Insurance data show there have been similar increases in the number of teenagers seeking puberty blockers, hormones and surgery.
Advocates of “gender-affirming care,” as it is known, attribute the rise to greater awareness of gender dysphoria and support among doctors.
Other experts, conservatives and parents warn of a “social contagion” of ideological origin.
Disagreements over parental notification come alongside debates over whether trans teens can use school bathrooms and compete in sports that align with their gender identities.
DailyMail.com has spoken to several parents of children who identify as transgender. Many are concerned that their children have been influenced to transition by classmates, TikTok influencers or teachers and school counsellors who want to make their voices heard.
Some do not believe their children are truly transgender and are trying to put off irreversible measures such as puberty blockers or surgery. Many said their child instead had mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and autism.
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