“The child is not the mere creature of the state.” This was what the U.S. Supreme Court said 100 years ago in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925). It recognizes what human civilization has long acknowledged: that parents have the fundamental right and responsibility to direct the upbringing, education and healthcare of their children.
That authority does not stop at the schoolhouse gate. When parents drop their kids off at school, they entrust schools to educate their children and equip them to succeed. However, somewhere along the way, that idea began to be lost. Instead, many schools are implementing harmful policies that drive a wedge between parents and kids while hiding critical information from the ones who know and love their kids best.
Sarah and Terry Osborn of Houston, Texas, discovered how damaging these policies can be firsthand.
Houston Independent School District policy keeps parents in the dark
When the Osborns’ daughter was a 14-year-old freshman at Bellaire High School in the Houston Independent School District (HISD), her theater teacher asked what pronouns to use to refer to her. The Osborns stated that only female pronouns should be used to refer to their daughter. They believed this settled the matter and moved on.
However, during her sophomore year, the family discovered their daughter’s schoolwork bearing a masculine name. From this schoolwork, they learned at least four HISD employees had been secretly “socially transitioning” their daughter for the past year, treating her as a boy and referring to her by the masculine name and incorrect pronouns—despite their express instructions otherwise. The Osborns told the school employees that the secret “social transition” violated their religious beliefs and instructed them to immediately stop. The employees initially agreed. But at the beginning of their daughter’s junior year, the Osborns discovered that their instructions had been ignored yet again.
The Osborns elevated the matter in a meeting with the school’s principal. But instead of agreeing to the parents’ instructions to treat their daughter as a female and call her by her given name and accurate pronouns, the principal suggested they find a “middle ground” solution around what name she would be called at school. He made no assurances that staff would comply with their directions or any “middle ground.” The Osborns sent a follow-up email reiterating their directives, but the principal refused to require employees to abide by their wishes.
Lacking confidence that HISD would follow their instructions, the Osborns enlisted the help of Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF attorneys sent a letter to the school district on the Osborns’ behalf asking the school to confirm that the couple’s daughter would only be referred to by her given name and female pronouns. ADF also requested documents relevant to the events that occurred. HISD ignored the request to stop treating the Osborns’ daughter as a boy and provided no documents.
Since the school district ignored requests for assurances and relevant documentation, the Osborns filed a lawsuit against the district for violating their constitutionally-protected parental and free exercise rights, asking the court to require the district to stop referring to their daughter by a masculine name and male pronouns.
The Osborns have brought this action because they want to help their daughter in the way they think is best. But the actions of HISD and its employees are preventing them from doing so. The district’s responses to the Osborns make clear that those actions will continue—unless a court says enough is enough.
Parents have the constitutional right to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to their children’s upbringing, education, and healthcare, without fear of government interference.
Taking action to protect parents’ rights
This lawsuit is important not just for the Osborns and other families with children in the Houston Independent School District, but for parental rights in general. HISD’s policy allowed employees to ignore the Osborns’ express instructions on how to refer to their daughter, and repeatedly concealed information from them on how their daughter was being treated as a boy at school.
Policies like this not only violate parents’ fundamental rights, but they also undermine trust between parents and schools. When parents drop their children off at school, they need to have assurance that their children will be treated in accordance with their wishes and that their constitutional rights will be respected.
Osborn v. Houston Independent School District
- March 2025: ADF attorneys sent a letter to the Houston Independent School District on behalf of the Osborns.
- June 2025: After HISD ignored the letter, ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit challenging the district’s gender treatment policy.
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