VERNON HILLS, Ill. | October 14, 2026 — Today, the Liberty Justice Center’s PARENTS Initiative sent a demand letter to Community High School District 128 in Vernon Hills, Illinois, warning that the District’s gender-related policies violate the constitutional rights of parents and teachers and the statutory rights of female students under Title IX.
Liberty Justice Center was contacted by parents of students enrolled in District 128 who are concerned about two District policies: its Procedures for Assigning Rooms for Overnight Student Trips and its Gender Support Guidelines.
The District’s overnight trip policy requires that lodging be assigned based on gender identity rather than biological sex and bars disclosure of roommates’ biological sex to parents without student consent. As a result, parents receive only participating students’ chosen names, leaving them with no way to know whether their minor child will share a room with an opposite-sex peer.
The District’s Gender Support Guidelines direct staff not to reveal a student’s transgender status to anyone, including parents, without the student’s authorization. The guidelines also require that school libraries and curricula incorporate gender-affirming literature, without providing parental notice or opt-out provisions.
Together, these policies undermine parents’ constitutionally protected right to make informed decisions about their children’s safety, welfare and upbringing—rights the Supreme Court reaffirmed in Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025) and Mirabelli v. Bonta (2026).
The demand letter also challenges the guidelines’ compelled-speech requirements. The guidelines require all staff to use a “gender-affirming approach” and treat refusal to affirm a student’s self-asserted gender identity as grounds for discipline. The letter argues that requiring teachers to express views contrary to their sincerely held beliefs violates their First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion.
Finally, the letter argues that the guidelines’ provisions allowing biological males to access female locker rooms and restrooms violate Title IX. When female students object and seek privacy, they—not the biological males—are directed to alternate facilities. The letter cites West Virginia v. B.P.J. (2026) in support of its argument that Title IX protects sex-based distinctions and that the policies violate the female students’ statutory rights.
LJC’s letter demands that District 128:
- Provide written assurance that it will amend its written policies to comply with parents’, teachers’ and students’ constitutional and statutory rights.
- Provide written assurance that it will notify all staff of the revised policies and provide appropriate training.
“District 128’s policies put school administrators in the role of deciding what parents can and cannot know about their own children,” said Kathryn Cosgrove, counsel for the Liberty Justice Center’s PARENTS Initiative. “Parents have a fundamental constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children—that includes knowing who their child is sharing a room with on an overnight school trip. Teachers also have the right to speak in accordance with their sincerely held beliefs. And biological girls have a right to privacy and protection from sex discrimination in locker rooms and school bathrooms. These are not optional protections, and District 128 will be held accountable if it ignores them.”
This letter is part of the Liberty Justice Center’s ongoing effort to defend parental rights through its PARENTS Initiative. This year, LJC sent letters to the attorneys general of five states challenging school district policies that conceal students’ gender transitions from their parents. LJC also sent a demand letter to a Missouri school district that blocked a parent from its official Facebook page after the parent left a “thumbs down” reaction on a post about a new staff member. In ongoing litigation, LJC represents a Portland mother who was banned from her son’s public school campus after speaking out against gender-related school policies.
Learn more about the Liberty Justice Center’s PARENTS Initiative here.
The Liberty Justice Center’s demand letter to Community High School District 128 is available here.