HARRISBURG – A Dover Area School District parent alleges that District personnel affirmed her 14-year-old daughter as a boy and referred to her by another name, without notifying the plaintiff.
Michelle Landerer filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on April 3 versus Dover Area School District, Dover Area School District Board of Directors, Dover Area School District Board Members Nathan Eifert, Terry Emig, Denis Dachaux, Amy Briton, Kathy Herman, Heidi Mease, Charles Rausauer, Carmen Witmer and David Wolverton, Dover Area School District Superintendent Kelly Cartwright, Dover Area Middle School Principal Tuesday Hufnagle and Dover Area Middle School Regular Education/Emotional Support Teacher Shantal Williams.
“Ms. Landerer’s daughter, O.G., is 14 years old. She experienced childhood trauma and has been under the care of physicians and mental health professionals since that time. O.G. was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Conversion Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder, all of which manifests in the form of diminished emotional regulation. Because of O.G.’s diagnoses she qualified for, and has in place, an Accommodation Plan pursuant to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, with the District. O.G. was a student in Dover Area School District from 2016 to May 2023. In 2022, during her eighth grade year of middle school, O.G. was experiencing significant anxiety and behavior issues,” the suit says.
“O.G. was already under the care of a private counselor chosen by her mother who was providing mental health therapy. When O.G. began experiencing increased stress and anxiety, plaintiff increased the frequency of the therapy sessions. In August 2022, O.G. told her private counselor that she thought she might be ‘trans.’ The counselor and Ms. Landerer began discussing that issue with O.G. and working through her feelings with her. Defendants fashioning and implementation of the directive as de facto policy resulted in the deception of and withholding from parents of information necessary for parents to make informed decisions concerning their children's health and welfare. Defendants made statements in public and private meetings that children’s safety requires concealing information from parents because some parents will not affirm the child’s wishes.”
The suit adds that “unbeknownst to plaintiff, during the 2021-2022 school year, O.G. told her teachers at Dover Area Middle School that she wanted to be treated as a boy and use the name ‘Caleb.”
“Ms. Landerer was not informed or advised by the District regarding O.G.’s request to be treated as a different sex and called by an alternate name, despite O.G. having mental health diagnoses and qualifying disabilities pursuant to Section 504, all of which the District was fully aware. During the 2021-2022 school year, defendant Williams, unbeknownst to and without plaintiff’s consent, regularly met with O.G. for the purpose of affirming O.G.’s request to be treated as a different sex and called by an alternate name and facilitating O.G.’s gender transition,” the suit states.
“In August 2022, Ms. Landerer first learned that O.G. had been and was being affirmed as a boy named ‘Caleb’ at school by personnel of the District when her son, J.G., then a student at Dover Area School District, was approached by a teacher/employee of the District and asked, ‘How is your brother ‘Caleb’ doing?’ J.G. responded by stating that he did not have a brother named Caleb and the teacher informed him that his sister O.G. had requested and was being affirmed by District staff as a boy named ‘Caleb’. J.G. then told his mother, plaintiff Michelle Landerer, about his conversation with the teacher. Had it not been for J.G.’s conversation with the District teacher, Ms. Landerer might never have learned that her vulnerable daughter was being secretly and deliberately affirmed as a boy (socially transitioned to a male identity) by District personnel.”
The suit explains that the plaintiff then spoke with O.G., telling her she is too young to make such decisions, that her legal name is “O”, that she can legally change her name when she becomes an adult and that she could work through her feelings on the issue in the counseling she was receiving.
O.G. replied that she “felt pressured to continue using the male name and being identified as a boy because that was now how District personnel at school regarded her.”
“On Aug. 11, 2022, Ms. Landerer sent a text message to Hufnagel at Dover Area Middle School saying: ‘O. is registered as O.G. and I expect she will be addressed as such. NOT CALEB…there is NO room for discussion about this matter and I have discussed this with [O.G.’s therapist] as well, so I am expecting there to be no confusion…’ On Aug. 22, 2022, plaintiff met with Hufnagel and other District personnel. During this meeting, District personnel confirmed that during the 2021-
2022 school year District staff had in fact affirmed O.G. as a boy, used the name ‘Caleb’, and male pronouns when referring to O.G,” the suit states.
“Ms. Landerer asked O.G. to tell her teachers to call her ‘O’ instead of ‘Caleb’ and O.G. said she did so. Ms. Landerer later learned that O.G. had told her teachers to call her ‘O’ in Ms. Landerer’s presence because her mother wanted it. Hufnagel confirmed that she, Hufnagel, would refer to O.G. as ‘O’ in Ms. Landerer’s presence, but as ‘Caleb’ in all other scenarios. Ms. Landerer’s son, J.G. is 11 years old and currently is a student at Weigelstown Elementary School and has been a student enrolled in Dover Area School District since 2019.”
For multiple counts of civil rights violations, the plaintiff is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, nominal damages, compensatory damages, attorneys’ fees, costs and such other relief as the Court deems proper.
The plaintiff is represented by Andrea L. Shaw of the Law Office of Andrew H. Shaw in Carlisle, plus Ernest Trakas, Mary Elizabeth McAlister and Vernadette Ramirez Broyles of the Child & Parental Rights Campaign, in Johns Creek, Ga.
The defendants have not yet secured legal counsel.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case 1:24-cv-00566
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com