Encinitas, CA—The Encinitas Union School District (EUSD) has agreed to change its policies to provide parental notification and opt-outs when promoting gender ideology or any material that substantially undermines families’ religious beliefs. The federal lawsuit, fiercely litigated for more than two years, involving unwanted coercive transgender sexuality indoctrination of Christian religious students at a Southern California public school, is now resolved.
This significant victory for parent rights, student rights, and religious freedom follows an early “coerced speech” preliminary injunction win by families in S.E. v. Grey, a significant policy change following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, and the EUSD’s agreement to pay plaintiffs $175,000. Because minor plaintiffs were involved, the court issued an order on September 14, 2026, approving the settlement and dismissing the case. Attorneys at The National Center for Law & Policy and First Liberty Institute represented the two Christian plaintiff families.
The facts in this case are compelling. Without any notice or warning, two 5th-grade Christian boys were read a book as part of the EUSD school’s buddy mentoring program. The book My Shadow is Pink promotes and affirms transgender sexual ideology. Next, the 5th-grade mentors joined their kindergartner mentee buddies to view a video about the same book. After the video, the fifth-grade mentors were instructed to ask the kindergartner mentees to pick out the color of their shadow, representing their gender identity, and trace the outline of the kindergartners’ bodies on the ground with the colored chalk.
Carlos and Jenny Encinas have a son who attended La Costa Heights Elementary School in the Encinitas Union School District. They and other Christian parents were naturally upset when they found out about the transgender affirming mentoring their fifth-grade sons had been forced to participate in at school. These families simply asked EUSD to notify them and allow them to opt out of the transgender instruction in the future. The district refused, informing them they would continue teaching these sexuality lessons, would not notify parents, and would not permit families to opt out.
After Carlos raised his concerns, school district employees and other parents responded with hostility toward his family, and the PTA president organized a “Pink out the Hate” day where half the school wore pink in support of transgender rights. The Encinas family received threats by phone and in person, and their sons were bullied to the point where they had to transfer to a different school. Along with another local family, the Encinas sued to bring transparency and accountability to EUSD.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on September 10, 2024, and the plaintiffs later filed a motion for a preliminary injunction. On May 12, 2025, Judge M. James Lorenz granted that motion in part, requiring the school district to provide advance notice and opt-outs when gender identity material is taught in mentoring programs. The judge’s opinion focused on the fact that EUSD compelled the speech of the two 5th-grade boys, forcing them to participate in and express transgender messages that conflict with their Christian faith, finding that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of that claim.
Less than a month later, on June 27, 2025, EUSD suffered another big legal blow when the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor. In Mahmoud, a majority of the Court ruled that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment requires public schools to provide parents with notice and a right to opt out whenever they provide any instruction, including, but not limited to, LGBTQ+ instruction, that substantially undermines the religion parents are inculcating at home.
On September 9, 2026, Shea Encinas and his mother Jenny shared their powerful story at a U.S. Department of Justice Religious Liberty Commission hearing, where Shea was introduced by President Donald Trump. They detailed how they were targeted and harassed by administrators and classmates after objecting to transgender indoctrination. In November, 2025, in light of the Mahmoud decision, EUSD dismissed its preliminary injunction loss appeal and changed its policy to provide district families with prior notice and opt-out rights. In July 2026, on the eve of the depositions of key witnesses and parties, including EUSD board members, administrators, and teachers, the case settled with the district agreeing to pay plaintiffs $175,000.
“We are pleased EUSD changed its policies to provide parental notification and opt-outs when inculcating gender ideology or any material that substantially undermines families’ religious beliefs,” stated Dean Broyles, president and chief counsel of the National Center for Law & Policy. Broyles continued, “This sets a positive precedent for other school districts in California to follow to appropriately honor the rights of families. Fortunately, faithful families do not forfeit their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights at the public schoolhouse door. This victory was truly a team effort, with San Diego attorney Rob Reynolds doing yeoman’s work to help us get across the finish line and resolve the case. This result vindicates the religious free exercise, free speech, and parental rights of our Christian client families, who have endured and suffered much.”
About the National Center for Law & Policy: The National Center for Law & Policy is a non-profit 501(c)(3) legal defense organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of religious freedom, the affirmation of life, parental rights, and other civil liberties. Please visit our website at www.nclplaw.org.
For further inquiries, comments, or to schedule interviews, please contact Dean Broyles at The National Center for Law & Policy at 760-747-4529 or dbroyles@nclplaw.org.
