UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS April 22, 2025

Christopher M. Wolpert FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court _________________________________ JONATHAN LEE; ERIN LEE; NICOLAS JURICH; LINNAEA JURICH,

Plaintiffs - Appellants, and C.L., a minor, by and through parents Jonathan and Erin Lee as next friends; M.L., a minor, by and through parents Jonathan and Erin Lee as next friends; H.J., a minor, by and through parents Nicolas and Linnaea Jurich as next friends,

Plaintiffs, v. No. 24-1254 POUDRE SCHOOL DISTRICT R-1,

Defendant - Appellee, and POUDRE SCHOOL DISTRICT R-1 BOARD OF EDUCATION,

Defendant. _________________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Colorado (D.C. No. 1:23-CV-01117-NYW-STV) _________________________________ Appellate Case: 24-1254 Document: 50-1 Date Filed: 04/22/2025 Page: 2

Richard P. Lawson of America First Policy Institute, Arlington, Virginia (Jase Panebianco, America First Policy Institute, Arlington, Virginia; J. Brad Bergford & Emily T. Davis of Illumine Legal LLC, Denver, Colorado, with him on the briefs), for Plaintiffs-Appellants. Jonathan P. Fero of Semple, Farrington, Everall & Case, P.C., of Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellee. _________________________________ Before MATHESON, PHILLIPS, and McHUGH, Circuit Judges. _________________________________ PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge. _________________________________

Like many twelve-year-old children who attend a new school, C.L. struggled. Her homeroom teacher, Jenna Riep, noticed and began talking one- on-one with C.L. These talks included discussions about C.L.’s gender identity and her freedom to use masculine pronouns if she preferred. Despite these conversations, C.L. never questioned her gender identity. Eventually, Riep, who was also the school’s art teacher, invited C.L. to an after-school art-club meeting. When C.L. arrived at the meeting, she saw that it was really a Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) meeting.

The meeting featured a guest speaker, Kimberly Chambers, a substitute teacher in the district. Chambers lectured the assembled students on gender- identity issues for about ninety minutes. She said that students uncomfortable with their bodies were likely transgender and as such were more prone to suicide. She gave LGBTQ-themed prizes to students who came out as transgender during the meeting. She warned the students that it might not be

2 Appellate Case: 24-1254 Document: 50-1 Date Filed: 04/22/2025 Page: 3

safe to tell their parents about the meeting, and she invited the students to communicate with her confidentially after providing them her personal contact information.

Though C.L. had not previously questioned her gender identity, she announced herself as transgender at the meeting. As C.L. was leaving, Riep again told her that she didn’t have to tell her parents about the meeting. But when she got home, C.L. tearfully told her parents that she was transgender and recounted what had happened at the meeting. The next day, her parents disenrolled her from the school district. As spelled out more below, H.J., one of C.L.’s classmates, had similar experiences with Riep and Chambers at the next two after-school GSA meetings.

C.L.’s and H.J.’s parents (the Lees and the Juriches) sued the Poudre School District and its Board of Education under the Fourteenth Amendment, alleging a violation of their parental substantive-due-process rights. After the district court grante