Lawsuit was taken up by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
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Parents Defending Education (PDE) president Nicole Neily called for conservative lawyers to fight locally and enter education law to stop school districts from enforcing rules on misgendering, pronoun usage and other gender politics in the classroom.
PDE announced Wednesday that it settled a lawsuit with an Iowa school district over a policy that penalized students who "misgender" others.
"Parents Defending Education is thrilled that Linn-Mar Community Schools has agreed to respect the First Amendment rights of its students going forward," PDE president Nicole Neily said in a press statement.
A pro-parents rights group, Parents Defending Education (PDE), announced that it settled a lawsuit with Linn-Mar Community School District over a policy that penalized students who "misgender" others. (iStock / Getty)
"Linn-Mar Community Schools' insurance company will pay the plaintiffs, [PDE], $20,000," per the Associated Press.
"This settlement sends a clear message that student speech may not be compelled by administrators when it comes to gender issues – and a reminder to districts that viewpoint discrimination in public schools is wrong, full stop," she continued.
The lawsuit was taken up by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Linn-Mar "agreed to rescind—and promised never to reinstate—the portion of Policy 504.13-R that prohibits an 'intentional and/or persistent refusal by staff or students to respect a student’s gender identity.'"
But Neily told Fox News Digital in an interview that the lawsuit, which ended in a legal settlement, was just one example of a newly emerging legal area of parents' rights.
She argued that parents' rights in the law is a "developing area" that has become increasingly important in the last few years, saying that the "pool of lawyers" who advise school districts is relatively small and "largely they all lean left."
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The lawsuit was taken up by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Linn-Mar "agreed to rescind—and promised never to reinstate—the portion of Policy 504.13-R that prohibits an 'intentional and/or persistent refusal by staff or students to respect a student’s gender identity.'" (iStock)
"The conservative movement, frankly, needs to build more education lawyers," she said. "And it's more than just the sexy, First Amendment, Title IX, Title VI type stuff. Much of what school board attorneys work on is Title IV, and IEP plans and contracts, where it's less interesting and sexy, but it's how you keep a school district running."
"There's not this deep bench of conservative education lawyers out there," she continued. "Those people just aren't there."
Neily said that the Trump administration faced considerable difficulty staffing the Department of Education with attorneys because conservative lawyers don't tend to focus on education.
"There is a pipeline issue that needs to be solved, but it certainly isn't going to be solved overnight," she said.
Linn-Mar said in a statement that it "believes the time and resources of the district are better spent looking forward than continuing to defend a lawsuit about a policy that has not been in effect for nearly a year."
Linn-Mar Community School District did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Joshua Q. Nelson and Kelsey Koberg contributed to this report.
Jeffrey Clark is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. He has previously served as a speechwriter for a cabinet secretary and as a Fulbright teacher in South Korea. Jeffrey graduated from the University of Iowa in 2019 with a degree in English and History.
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