A Christian teacher in California is suing the state's top officials over a gender policy she says forced her to lie to parents and teach her students to live "double" lives.
Rincon Middle School teachers Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West filed a lawsuit against Escondido Union School District (EUSD) last year, saying the school policy forced teachers to aid in students’ "social transition" by using pronouns and gender-specific names requested by the students during school hours. The lawsuit was amended last month to also name Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, because the district policy was based on guidance promoted by the state's Department of Education.
Mirabelli appeared on Tuesday's "Fox & Friends" to explain her objections to the policy.
"It required us when meeting and speaking with parents to withhold critical information about their child’s mental health and emotional health, and specifically refer to that child by one set of names and pronouns in front of parents and, during the school day, change to another name and another set of pronouns that parents were unaware of. So, basically, I was teaching this child to live a double life," she said.
"It was tricky, it was confusing. A teacher is a very busy person and in addition to my roster, I was supposed to memorize names and various unique pronouns for a number of students," the teacher continued.
The policy became confusing to enforce in the classroom, with as many as seven girls asking the teacher to address them by different names with unique pronouns, she explained.
"This is becoming a fad, especially with young girls and empirical science has proven that. So I had no less than seven girls that wanted different names than my roster, a variety of interesting pronouns like ‘they’ or ‘zir’ and so forth. It is very difficult for me to remember that in a busy, hectic moving environment," she added.
The teachers' lawsuit states that, "According to EUSD’s policies, all elementary and middle school teachers must unhesitatingly accept a child’s assertion of a transgender or gender diverse identity and must ‘begin to treat the student immediately’ according to their asserted gender identity. There’s no requirement for parent or caretaker agreement or even for knowledge."
Newsom's office pushed back against being named in the suit, telling Fox News Digital earlier this month, "Federal law is clear that the Governor is not a proper party in a case like this, and we will be moving to have the Governor dismissed in short order."
LAWYER FOR CALIFORNIA TEACHERS: SCHOOLS REQUIRING THEM TO LIE TO PARENTS ABOUT KIDS’ GENDER IDENTITY
However, the attorney for the plaintiffs argued that the court had ordered Newsom and Bonta to be named as co-defendants in the suit, because the school district had pointed fingers to state leaders as the "source" for the gender policy.
"We have the governor and the attorney general sort of defying the court's order from a distance and now they're roped in directly under the court's jurisdiction," Paul Jonna of the Thomas More Society explained on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday.
A California judge temporarily blocked a school district from enforcing a similar gender policy last September, forcing the state to confront the issue.
"I think the Governor and the Attorney General know exactly what's at stake," Jonna explained. He hopes the lawsuit will block similar policies in school districts across the nation.
"For whatever reason, this has been a top priority for the state of California, enforcing these gender secrecy policies, and this case presents the best opportunity to undo that in California and throughout the country," he continued.
Fox News' Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
