Rock Springs Couple Who Lost Gender Transition Lawsuit Against School District Appeals

The Rock Springs couple who lost a lawsuit last month against their local school district, which they accused of hiding their daughter’s gender transition from them, appealed Friday to a higher court.

Sean and Ashley Willey first sued Sweetwater County School District in April 2023, saying they found out their daughter had been socially transitioning to present as a boy while at Black Butte High School, after staffers called the girl by a male name and pronouns for months.

After U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl judged the case in the district’s favor last month, the Willeys announced they would appeal. On Friday, they did.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged the appeal and issued a case number to the appeal. But the Willeys have not yet submitted their argument brief to the higher court: that’s a filing that typically arrives weeks after the appeal announcement.

Why This

The district had crafted a policy requiring its staffers to use students’ preferred pronouns and mandating they respect students’ “privacy” in those decisions.

Skavdahl blocked the “privacy” half of the policy in July 2023, and the district crafted a softer preferred-pronoun policy with accommodations carveouts for staffers who couldn’t comply fully.

Still, the Willeys alleged that the harm had been done, and that the school had violated their constitutional parental rights.

Ashley Willey, as a teacher in another school in the district, said the school’s pronouns policies violated her religious rights.

Skavdahl dismissed all those claims and judged the case early against the Willeys, saying their claims didn’t fit the rights they claimed were being violated.

For example, Skavdahl refused to contour one’s parental rights — which is a recognized right under the U.S. Constitution — so broadly as to compel specific actions from schools.

It’s one thing to keep schools from violating parents’ rights with their actions, but it’s another to compel schools toward certain actions to uphold those rights, Skavdahl’s judgment indicated.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.