Parents accuse Hilliard City Schools of forcing female student to identify as male

A group of parents who sued Hilliard City Schools in January 2023 to prohibit discussions of sexual matters with students and to keep teachers from wearing badges showing support for LGBTQ+ students updated their complaint this month to claim the district coerced a female student to identify as male.

In the amended complaint filed in federal court in Columbus, a parent who filed the initial suit said teachers convinced a biologically female student, who was in the eighth and ninth grade, to identify as a male and use male pronouns.

"The teachers convinced (the student) she was a boy in a girl's body and pressured the child to adopt a new name and identify as the opposite sex," the lawsuit says.

The parent said teachers used the student's female name and pronouns in front of the student's parents and the parents were not informed of the district's belief the student had gender dysphoria until a postcard using the male name and pronouns was sent to the student's home.

The parent said in the lawsuit that after learning of their child's status, their “condition spiraled out of control” and led to a suicide attempt at the school, the lawsuit says. The suit claims the district's actions drove the student to take the self-harming actions.

The amended complaint does not identify which school the student attended or when the suicide attempt occurred. The district said in a response filed Monday that the claim made by the parents is outside the statute of limitations.

This is the second time since the lawsuit was initially filed that the group of parents filed an amended complaint. With the initial lawsuit and the first amended complaint, the school district had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit due to a lack of a valid legal claim. The amended complaints have been filed before a ruling on those motions, forcing them to be refiled by the district.

Superintendent David Stewart previously denounced the lawsuit , saying it was filled with "misstatements of fact and mischaracterizations.” In a response to the most recent amended complaint, the district reiterated its request to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Board President Beth Murdoch said during a packed board meeting in February of 2023 that the entire school board stood behind Stewart's statement. Several board members spoke out in defense of the district saying the lawsuit attempted to skew public perception of how the district supports its LGBTQ+ students.

"The misinformation and mischaracterizations they are spreading are not only misleading, but harmful," board member Kara Crowley said at the time of the plaintiffs who filed the suit. "Our schools are wonderful. Our teachers are incredible — and I stand with all of our students without exception."

bbruner@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Parents accuse Hilliard City Schools of forcing female student to identify as male