After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case surrounding a public school district's policy of concealing student gender transitions from parents, a veteran attorney who worked at the U.S. Department of Education is explaining the massive implications. Earlier this week, the high court declined to hear Parents Protecting Our Children, UA v. Eau Claire Area School District, a case that would have put parental rights front and center. Sarah Parshall Perry, a senior legal fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation and a former senior counsel at the U.S. Department of Education, said the battle centered on policies implemented at the Eau Claire Area School District in Wisconsin.

"The Supreme Court decided that they were not going to take up what was a challenge to the constitutionality of a school policy keeping gender identity information of minor children ... confidential from their parents," Perry said. "Now, this is a shocking policy, but it is one of about 1,200 policies across the country." In fact, the legal expert said there are around 12 million American kids in public schools across America who fall under such guidelines. "If they identified as transgender or gender dysphoric, or ... using different names or pronouns, their parents could not find out that information on the child's say-so," Perry said. "All a child would have to do is say, 'Keep that information confidential for my parents,' and that's exactly what would happen."

Before the case reached the Supreme Court, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had said the parents in the case lacked standing, meaning they had not been harmed and, thus, couldn't take action. Ultimately, Perry said one doesn't need to be "injured" before they demonstrate an "imminent possibility of harm." "The harm's already occurred because the parental right has been breached by the school district," she said. Adding to the complexities of these cases are the important juxtapositions that must be made between what minors are permitted — and not permitted — to do in other contexts. For instance, many school districts require signed parental consent for a school nurse to administer Tylenol and other over-the-counter medications.

"We do not let these minor children sign contracts, registere for the draft, buy alcohol, buy cigarettes — a multitude of restrictions, and, yet, suddenly, within the context of gender identity, all the courts have taken a hands-off approach and have presumed that a child is aware of the lifelong consequences of a desire to ostensibly transition," Perry said. "What is particularly pernicious about these school confidentiality policies is that they result in what's known as social transitioning."