DOJ: Maryland district aided kids’ secret gender transitions

The Justice Department announced a lawsuit Wednesday intended to stop Anne Arundel County Public Schools, or AACPS, from facilitating the gender transitions of children without parental consent. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division alleges that AACPS was blocking parents’ access to information about their children, which they are entitled to under federal law. The lawsuit alleges that AACPS violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.

WORLD has reached out to AACPS for comment on the lawsuit.

How did AACPS secretly transition kids? According to the DOJ’s lawsuit, the school district has been directing school staff to solicit, document, and act upon a student’s self‑identified name, pronouns, and what the district calls gender identity, all without notifying parents. The DOJ alleged that AACPS designates gender identity information as confidential and instructs staff to withhold it from parents based on the assertion that informing parents would pose a safety concern to students. The DOJ claimed that AACPS reports gender identity information to the Maryland State Department of Education without parental notice or an opportunity to challenge its accuracy.

Was there a particular victim? The complaint includes one anonymous family that claims that during the 2025-2026 school year, AACPS questioned students one-on-one about their preferred names and pronouns. Two unnamed parents received emails twice from teachers referring to their daughter by a male name and pronouns. The family confronted AACPS, but, allegedly, each time, AACPS lied about helping the daughter pretend to be male at school. AACPS eventually admitted to lying, but allegedly refused to give the family details or records about their daughter’s so-called gender transition.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said that schools should not discuss pronouns or gender identity with students without parental consent. He added that the DOJ will end these illegal policies that keep parents in the dark.