Adam Shelton

Yes, thank you for having us.

From a legal point of view, we sent a letter to the school kind of explaining our view of the law and the situation and asking them to change their policy and to make it explicit that these types of steps could not be taken without at the very least parental notice and notifying parents that this was happening.

The school refused to change their policy.

So we, on behalf of Amber, filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for Maine.

Unfortunately, both the district court in Maine and then the first district court of appeals in Boston ruled against the claims.

So the Court of Appeals determined that there was an obvious alternative explanation for the school's conduct, and that was that there is a main law that allows a school counselor to establish a confidential relationship with a child.

So they said that the first circuit believed that that law protected this sort of conduct or protected the policy here, which is entirely besides the point because, as we all know, the U.S.

Constitution trumps any state law.

Absolutely.

So the Supreme Court has held for over a century now that parents have a fundamental right to control and direct the education and upbringing of their children.

But a parent can't meaningfully do that, can't meaningfully decide whether or not a specific school remains the best educational environment for their child if school officials are withholding information from parents, especially information that directly affects the mental health or physical well-being of a child.

That's exactly what happened here.

Important information was withheld from Amber, and it prevented her for a certain amount of time

This is a pretty conservative Supreme Court overall.

I think so.

Just a year and a half, two years ago, the Supreme Court held in a religious freedom claim that parents had the right to opt out their children from certain lessons.

Now, we're bringing a strictly parental rights claim, but the logic of that claim applies directly to this claim as well.

And I think it's important to note that some of the justices on the court, especially Justice Alito, have taken issue with some of these procedural steps that lower courts have taken to evade answering these important parental rights questions.

There are two other cases that are currently being petitioned to the US Supreme Court right now.

All these cases are at the very early stages from a litigation point of view.