Judge rules 1st-grade teacher violated parents’ rights by reading books with transgender characters

A judge said a teacher in the Mount Lebanon School District violated parents’ rights by choosing to read books with transgender characters without their approval.

On the International Transgender Day of Visibility in March 2022, first-grade teacher Megan Williams reportedly read two books with transgender characters in them to her students.

Parents were never notified, so when their children came home from school talking about gender identity and how someone knows if they’re a boy or a girl, their antenna went up.

David Berardinelli represents three mothers who had children in Williams’ class that day.

“Just because you send your child to public education doesn’t mean you check your belief systems at the door and the district has to have some respect for everybody’s belief systems,” Berardinelli said.

Williams, who has a transgender child, read “When Aidan Became a Brother” which follows Aidan who realizes he is a transgender boy, and “Introducing Teddy, a gentle story about gender and friendship” which focuses on the transgender transition of one character and the support they receive from their friend.

“It’s not a veto, parents don’t get to dictate what’s taught in schools or what’s in the public school curriculum. But there’s a place for parents’ viewpoints,” Berardinelli continued.

U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti agreed issuing a 94-page document where she gave her opinion that the rights of several Mount Lebanon School District parents were violated as they weren’t given the option to opt out of the lesson.

“Parents ought to, and do, have a right to be provided appropriate notice of what their children particularly young children are going to be taught, and we didn’t get that,” Berardinelli said,

“I couldn’t believe that a judge would ignore the safety of children,” said Asta Kill.

She’s the president of, Lebo Pride, a Mount Lebanon-based nonprofit that promotes queer and gender-diverse education.

“If you say, ‘Oh, it only applies to transgender kids,’ then yes, you single us out. So imagine what happens if the teacher is trying to talk about gender and all the kids that parents want to leave, leave because of you while you sit in the classroom. Think about this, how does this make you feel as a kid?” Kill said.

Channel 11 contacted Mount Lebanon School District for comment but did not hear back.

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