Jennifer Vitsaxaki, a mother from New York, is suing Skaneateles Central School District for allegedly adopting a masculine identity for her middle-school daughter without parental consent. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, asserts that the girl’s teachers and school officials treated her as a boy, including using masculine pronouns and a boy’s name, during the 2020–2021 school year without her mother’s knowledge.
The complaint alleges that district officials and school counselors concealed these actions from Vitsaxaki, having initiated a social transition process based on advice from a school psychologist, as aligned with the district’s policy. As a result, the student’s sudden onset of anxiety, depression, and school-avoidance behavior remained unexplained to the mother, despite her inquiries to the school.
The lawsuit holds that the district, by transitioning the child socially without parental consent and withholding crucial information about her well-being, violated Vitsaxaki’s fundamental parental rights and deeply held religious beliefs. Lawyers from the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), representing Vitsaxaki, argued that the U.S. Constitution grants parents the right to decide about their children’s upbringing, education, and healthcare, a position echoed by ADF’s Senior Counsel, Kate Anderson.
Despite Vitsaxaki’s repeated requests to cease using the masculine name, the school continued, leading her to eventually shift her daughter to a private school. The Skaneateles Central School District has yet to comment on the lawsuit.
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