ACLU of New Jersey Legal Director Jeanne LoCicero today released the following statement following Attorney General Platkin’s Filing of Civil Rights Complaint and Application Seeking to Immediately Prohibit Implementation of Hanover Township Board of Education’s LGBTQ+ Parental Notification Policy:
“We appreciate that the Attorney General and the Division of Civil Rights took swift action to prevent the implementation of a discriminatory and intrusive school policy. The rights of all students, including LGBTQ+ students, must be respected and protected.
“Students are protected by New Jersey’s constitution and the Law Against Discrimination and may share or withhold information about their sexual orientation or gender identity from their parents, teachers, and other parties.
“Disclosing a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity to their parents without a student’s full and voluntary consent not only invades their privacy, but can open an LGBTQ+ student to depression, bullying, suicide, violence or even abandonment by families. Enacting a policy that has teachers policing their schools to out LGBTQ+ students is a disconcerting return to tactics used to criminalize sexual orientation and gender identity. It targets students based on their LGBTQ+ status and cannot stand.”
