California mother Jessica Konen has won $100,000 in a settlement lawsuit against Spreckels Union School District after she claimed that the school slowly convinced her sixth-grade daughter that she was transgender.
Konen claimed school officials “planted the seed” that prompted her daughter to question her sexuality. Eventually her daughter was led to believe she was transgender, a fiction enforced by her teachers instructing her to use a male name. Konen claims all these actions were done to her daughter without notifying her.
“I would, you know, suggest as my advice to stop doing this. Stop putting secrecy into parents in general. It creates division within families. It kind of stops the bond that you make with your children,” Konen told Fox News on Thursday.
Related: Calif. Mom Sues Middle School for Secretly Convincing Her Daughter to Go Trans
Mark Trammel of the Center for American Liberty, which represented the Konens, told Fox News the settlement is a step in the right direction.
“I think it's going to have a deterring effect. I think that schools that are doing this behind parents' backs are going to think twice because the financial liability is so great.”
Trammel says his office is receiving calls about similar incidents "from all 50 states."
$100,000 may be a deterrent, but it’s surely not a high enough price for schools to pay for this type of action.