The Illinois Family Institute has joined dozens of other organizations and individuals across the country in submitting a friend of the court brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit regarding the case of Vitsaxaki v. Skaneateles Central School District.

Jennifer Vitsaxaki, filed a lawsuit against her local school district after her 12-year-old daughter was counseled and “socially transitioned” at school without her mother’s knowledge. According to the lawsuit, school employees referred to her daughter with a masculine name and third-person plural pronouns, which conflicted with her daughter’s biological reality

There is no reason why this information should have been hidden from Vitsaxaki. She is absolutely within her God-given rights as a parent to sue the school for violating her parental rights and religious beliefs. Her lawsuit argues that the district’s secrecy and deception betrayed parental trust and caused harm, including forcing Vitsaxaki to withdraw her daughter from the school.

The lawsuit also challenges the school’s actions as depriving Vitsaxaki of her fundamental Constitutional rights to direct her child’s upbringing, education, and healthcare as well as exercise of her sincerely held religious beliefs.

From the brief:

“[Friends of the court] therefore believe it is the parents, rather than the state, who know what is in the best interests of their minor children. . . [Friends of the court] are united in their interest in ensuring that public schools do not continue to implement policies that interfere with the fundamental rights of parents in the upbringing of their children—policies that conceal information fundamental to a child’s identity, personhood, and mental and emotional well-being such as their preferred names and pronouns.” Read the full document HERE.

More About Vitsaxaki v. Skaneateles Central School District

The case arose after Jennifer Vitsaxaki’s daughter began experiencing anxiety and academic difficulties while in seventh grade, leading her to meet regularly with school counselors and a psychologist. During these meetings, the school started “socially transitioning” her by using a preferred male name and “they/them” pronouns at school without informing or obtaining consent from her mother.

School staff were specifically instructed to conceal this information from her mother until the student chose to share it herself. A formal “Gender Support Plan” later confirmed that school employees were directed to use a masculine name and third-person pronouns at school, while continuing to use the daughter’s legal female name in all communications with her mother to preserve the secrecy.

Vitsaxaki learned of this usurpation of parental authority in May 2021 when a school principal revealed the information during a phone call. Vitsaxaki immediately objected and requested that the school cease using the alternate name and pronouns. The school continued using the name and pronouns, so Vitsaxaki withdrew her daughter from the district and enrolled her in a private school, incurring significant emotional and financial strain, including private school tuition and transportation costs. She later filed a federal lawsuit, claiming that the schools actions prohibited her free exercise of sincerely held religious beliefs (First Amendment), and her fundamental parental right to direct the upbrining of her child.

On March 20, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York dismissed the case, ruling that Vitsaxaki lacked standing because her daughter was no longer enrolled in the school district.

In response, Vitsaxaki filed a notice for appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on April 15, 2025. Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, she argues that the district court erred in its ruling and maintains that the school district’s policies violated her constitutional rights as a parent and as a person of faith.

IFI Senior Counsel James Odom said,

“It cannot be stated strongly enough that it is absolutely essential to a free society, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court’s sworn constitutional duty, to affirm in the strongest manner possible, the fundamental constitutional right, that is, endowed by Our Creator, of parents to direct the upbringing of their own children, especially in matters regarding religious belief.  They should uniformly smack down school officials that would engage in concealing information in order to advance their own private political, religious, and social agendas, denying parents and students their fundamental constitutional rights!”