DOJ sues Maryland school district over preferred names, pronouns
The Justice Department is suing a Maryland school district, accusing it of violating federal laws governing parental rights by enforcing policies that permit staff to use students’ preferred pronouns and names without their parents’ knowledge, amid the Trump administration’s broader efforts to restrict transgender rights.
The eight-count lawsuit filed Tuesday in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland specifically accuses Anne Arundel County Public Schools of violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.
The lawsuit largely centers on a single student, identified in the complaint as Mary Doe, who asked school staff to refer to them by a male name that the document does not disclose.
Federal lawyers allege that the school violated FERPA by disclosing Mary Doe’s preferred name without her parents’ consent in a field-trip roster emailed to other parents in May 2026. They also allege the district violated FERPA when it denied Mary’s parents access to internal staff communications and other documents concerning their child’s preferred name and pronouns, and denied them an opportunity to challenge such records. The federal lawyers, however, acknowledge in the complaint that Mary’s official school records continued to reflect her legal name and birth gender.
The school district is also accused of violating PPRA after a staff member individually asked each student, including Mary, for their preferred names and held one-on-one discussions about preferred pronouns without parental involvement. The federal lawyers also allege that these lines of questioning involving legally protected sensitive information require prior written parental consent or, at a minimum, advance parental notification and an opportunity to opt out, which they say the school district did not provide Mary’s parents.
The remaining three counts concern broader district policies, including allegedly disclosing personally identifiable student gender information to Maryland education authorities without parental consent, failing to provide parents with opportunities to challenge gender-related education records and restricting parental access to education records.
“Schools should not discuss preferred pronouns or ‘gender identity’ with a student without parental notification and consent,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
“Parents should not be lied to, stonewalled or branded as ‘safety concerns’ when they ask to see the education records that reveal what schools are secretly doing to their children.”
UPI has contacted the school district for comment.
President Donald Trump campaigned on restricting the rights of transgender Americans, and since returning to the White House, his administration has taken numerous actions targeting this minority group, from ordering federal agencies to recognize only two biological sexes while replacing the term “gender” with “sex,” to restricting access to gender-affirming care, especially for minors.
The federal government has opened more than 10 investigations into state education agencies and county school districts concerning transgender-student policies, citing federal laws, including FERPA or PPRA. The Anne Arundel County lawsuit is the second such case filed by the Justice Department, following its first lawsuit against Kansas City and Kansas Public Schools on Sept. 1.
The Department of Education announced enforcement actions against Anne Arundel County Public Schools in late July after receiving complaints from parents who “discovered that the school was secretly helping their daughter pretend to be a male at school.”
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