It’s now up to a federal judge whether the California Department of Education and the Escondido Union School District can enforce what’s called a “parental exclusion policy.”

The policy prohibits teachers from disclosing a student’s gender identity or intent to transition to parents, unless given permission.

In 2023, two Rincon Middle School teachers filed a lawsuit, now a class action lawsuit, against the district, the state of California and Attorney General Rob Bonta. The teachers argued the policy violated their First Amendment rights of free speech and free exercise of religion.

Judge Roger T. Benitez granted the plaintiffs an injunction that halted the policy.

The case will not go to trial. Oral arguments concluded on Monday, and Judge Benitez had not issued a ruling.

The first half of the day was focused on addressing the plaintiff’s motion asking for sanctions against the defendants, filed last week. Attorney Paul Jonna and the Thomas More Society argued that the state was still sharing gender secrecy policies to school districts. The mandatory PRISM teacher training, authored by the California Department of Education, Jonna argued, included directives “to withhold information from parents about their children’s ‘gender identity.'” The defendants denied any purposeful misleading of the court and said the existing policies online and still accessible were an error. They were removed.

Jonna, representing the Thomas More Society, explained the case to NBC 7:

“The teachers claims are essentially they don’t want to be forced to deceive parents about their own children’s gender identity at school. So they want to have truthful communications with parents. And that’s that’s a class of teachers in California. And then there’s parents who are asking for two things. They want to be notified if their child expresses a gender identity at school that’s different from their biological sex and they want to be able to provide consent. They don’t want the kid to decide to start a social transition without their consent.”

The California Department of Education did not comment on Monday’s hearing.