Print 
PDF
Remember that little song about "school days, school days, up in the morning and off to school--the teacher is teaching the Golden Rule"?
For too many kids and parents, school days are not wonderful, like Founding Father Noah Webster envisioned, and as too many parents and grandparents expect.
Nor does it teach the "Golden Rule."
Be informed, not misled.
CBS affiliate KOIN TV 6 in Portland, Oregon, is reporting, "Oregon’s largest school district is being sued by a parent hoping to challenge its policies and curriculum on gender identity."
The lawsuit was filed in federal court against Portland Public Schools on Aug. 13 by the Liberty Justice Center on behalf of Allison Roberts, who alleges the district retaliated against her for opposing “the introduction of trans ideology” at her children’s school.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.
You may remember that only a short time ago I talked about, on the radio and wrote about in this daily column, a former "Washington resident who said she hasn’t seen her child since late November 2025 after staff at Puyallup High School allegedly advised gender affirming care without their permission and provided the child with resources for emancipation.
Jody Holman, now living in Texas, detailed a harrowing story about how her daughter, Eleanor, lived two lives: at home, “Eleanor was Eleanor,” but at school, under the supervision of school administrators, Eleanor wanted to be called Elliot and identify as he/him.
Holman alleged that Puyallup High School [Tacoma area] decided that, since her family was non-affirming, they couldn’t care for their own child appropriately, and that school staff took matters into their own hands.
“They stepped in in ways that I believe they never should have because they got between a child and their parents,” Holman said in an exclusive interview on Heywire News Media. “They advocated for Eleanor to have gender affirming care, off campus, outside of walking distance.”
One day, Holman found a list of gender care facilities in Eleanor’s backpack and said the material was provided to her by a school counselor without her knowledge. In light of her discovery, Holman demanded to meet with the school.
During the meeting, one of the fill-in counselors who oversaw Eleanor stood up and “yelled” at Holman that “it is [the counselor’s] right to provide that information to this child.”
Holman later submitted public records requests to dig into what information Eleanor was being provided, leading to a shocking discovery.
She learned that Eleanor was connected with Oasis Center, an LGBTQ+ youth organization, and Team Child, a legal advocate providing free services for youth.
According to Holman, the purpose of the school in putting Eleanor in touch with these groups was “to get Eleanor transitioned.”
“It was something we were navigating as a family, which every family should have the right to navigate on their own; every family should have that right,” Holman said. “But when the school and the state come in between that, we don’t get the right to navigate that. We don’t get the right to be able to work on it as a family together to work through our own issues.”
Holman’s daughter, now 16 years old, remains missing somewhere in the Dripping Springs, Texas area as of this reporting.
Now, there is the Allison Roberts matter in Portland Public Schools.
“Parents have a constitutional right to speak out about their children’s education—especially when they are asking for transparency about what their children are being taught,” said Timothy Snowball, one of the attorneys representing her. “Government officials cannot silence a parent simply because they dislike her views.”
Roberts, whose children both attended Meriwether Lewis Elementary School at the time of the incident, said in the complaint that one of her favorite things about living in Portland is the city’s multicultural and gay community. However, she said she takes issue with schools promoting an ideology that “teaches children to question their sex and the way God made them.”
Obviously, the mother is struggling with the basis of her worldview. If you celebrate the LGBTQ+, you shouldn't be surprised when the LGBTQ+ activists try to redefine the life of your child.
Nonetheless, her story is a sad one. And an instructional one.
Via KOIN TV:
The conflict arose during the 2025-26 school year, when Roberts said she noticed the campus added an intersex-inclusive progress pride flag to school benches. The benches had previously been painted with the traditional gay pride flag rainbow pattern, but Roberts said the decision to switch them to the intersex-inclusive progress pride flag was made without any input from the larger school community. She said she considers the flag overtly political and that it promotes values contradictory to her Christian faith.
While she was considering how to address the benches with the school, she said one of her children came home with an “identity flower” assignment that asked the child to identify his gender for his teacher and classmates. She said she became concerned that teachers were introducing gender issues to elementary school students without parents' knowledge or participation, so she met with the principal.
Roberts alleges the principal, both of her children’s teachers and the school counselor attended the meeting but avoided answering her questions and left her concerns unaddressed. She wrote a letter to the larger school community and expressed her frustrations and clarified her concerns.
“If we truly support the gay community, we should not blur the line between same sex attraction and medicalized identity,” she wrote. “Why is a hotly contested subject being presented as instructional?”
She said she stood on the sidewalk handing out copies of the letter outside the school campus and engaged in what she thought was a respectful conversation with another parent. They agreed to meet the next day to continue the discussion, but when she met the woman again, she was accompanied by her husband. The husband allegedly interrupted their conversation and became confrontational, according to the lawsuit.
Takeaway
Roberts said she awoke the next morning to police knocking at her door with a one-year trespass order from the elementary school campus. She said that to her knowledge, the man involved received no such order, and the school principal later emailed the entire school community accusing her of engaging in “harassment, intimidation and threatening behavior.”
Two days later, on Feb. 8, Roberts said she was finally offered the opportunity to opt her children out of lessons concerning gender identity, which contradict her beliefs. The following school year, she said she was given no notice or opportunity to opt out again. She tried to appeal the trespass order and ask for clarity on the district’s harassment policy, but has been unsuccessful.
“One of the most painful parts of this experience has been missing the milestones every parent hopes to share with their children,” Roberts said. “Because of the trespass order, I have been excluded from elementary school events, missing my son’s graduation and losing irreplaceable moments with both of my children. It has been heartbreaking. These are memories our family can never get back.”
The lawsuit challenges both the district’s harassment policy and its nondisclosure policy regarding lessons on gender identity.
A PPS spokesperson said the district does not comment on pending litigation.
- Parents hold the primary right to guide their children's education. History and US law show this power belongs to families, not the state.
- Early American Roots: Colonial Era: Families taught children at home or in local community groups.
- First Laws: Massachusetts passed early laws in 1642 and 1647. These laws required parents to ensure their kids could read and understand religious laws. The state set the goal, but parents kept the duty.
- Key Supreme Court Cases: Meyer v. Nebraska (1923): The Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment protects a parent's right to control their child's education and teach foreign languages. Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925): The Court stated that children are not mere creatures of the state. Families can choose private or parochial schools instead of public ones. Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972): The Court protected Amish parents. They could pull their kids from public school after eighth grade for religious reasons.
- The state cannot override a family's deep-rooted values.
- The Bible says, "Train up a child in the way he should go..." God is not speaking to the "State." He is speaking to biblical parents.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Engaged. Be Vigilant. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.
