TRENTON, NJ – In a move towards protecting civil rights, especially those of LGBTQIA+ students, the Superior Court of New Jersey has granted a preliminary injunction against new policies enacted by the Middletown, Marlboro, and Manalapan-Englishtown Boards of Education. These policies were viewed as conflicting with the state’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD), and the Court’s decision stops them from being implemented.
Those against the laws say the shield parents from knowing what their children are doing while in public schools and allows children to hide their gender identity from parents.
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin expressed satisfaction with the court’s ruling, emphasizing its importance in ensuring nondiscrimination based on gender identity or expression. He highlighted that the policies likely violated the rights of the state’s most vulnerable residents.
The injunction means that the concerned school districts are prohibited from modifying or amending the existing policies that protected the rights of transgender students. These long-standing policies, uncontroversial until recently, allowed schools to communicate with parents about their children based on individualized and unbiased evaluations of a child’s needs and circumstances.
The Attorney General made it clear that the state respects parental rights and does not seek a “ban” on parental notification. Rather, the legal actions aim to reinstate the policies that were previously accepted without issue. He affirmed that the state can maintain a balance between keeping parents informed about their children’s development and protecting the civil rights of vulnerable students, and the current laws require this balanced approach.
The decision represents a milestone in the ongoing struggle for LGBTQIA+ rights and is likely to have wider implications for how schools across the state approach gender identity and expression issues.