A Southern California family is suing a private school in Yorba Linda charging it forced their eight-year old transgender child to identify and dress as a boy.
India West reports Heritage Oak Private Education is being sued by her parents for discrimination.
“We couldn’t stand to watch her hopes and dreams be crushed because a group of adults didn’t accept her for who she is,” said Jaspret Brar, the father.
A therapist encouraged the Brar’s to buy their child girl clothes whenever she asked for it. According to the lawsuit, their child told her parents she identified as a girl when she was seven.
“I am forever in awe of the courage that it took for her to stand up for who she is, despite all the messages she was getting from her school and from society,” said her mother Priya Shah. “Her courage to fight for her authentic self has galvanized my own.”
Heritage Oak said it has accommodated older transgender children in the past, and offered accommodations for her as well, but said they were rejected by the family.
“We believed it was extremely important to respond, not hastily, but with deliberate care, to decide when and how to inform and educate our entire elementary school community of students, staff and parents about the mid-year change of gender identity expression of a young child,” Kerry Owens, a spokeswoman for the school’s parent company, Nobel Learning, said to the OC Register. “Due to the sensitivity of the issue and age of the child, we believed we needed expert guidance regarding timing (such as preparing children for a change they would see in spring semester of second grade and fall semester of third grade), process and age-appropriate communication.”
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