Kirkwood, MO - This Friday, April 10, school districts across the country will promote and facilitate the 30th annual GLSEN “Day of Silence,” a student protest in which participants vow to remain silent throughout the school day in support of LGBTQ+ causes. Many of those districts have said nothing to parents about the event or their right, upheld by recent Supreme Court decisions, to opt their children out of it.

Today, Thomas More Society attorneys sent a warning letter to the Kirkwood School District in Missouri—where North Kirkwood Middle School plans to show students a promotional video on April 8 and host a school-wide “Day of Silence” on April 10—without providing parents meaningful advance notice or any mention of their right to opt out. Today’s demand applies the Supreme Court’s March 2 decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta, brought and won by Thomas More Society, to a school district’s LGBTQ+ advocacy.

“Hundreds of school districts across the country are promoting the ‘Day of Silence’ this Friday without telling parents a thing about it. This event drafts every student into LGBTQ+ advocacy whether they want to participate or not—you either stay silent in support, or you’re marked as a dissenter for simply speaking,” said Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society. “After Mirabelli, the law is clear: parents have a right to know and a right to opt out. Any district that ignores that obligation should expect to hear from us—and the consequences of noncompliance are costly.”

While students are free to protest on their own, when a school district endorses and facilitates a “Day of Silence” demonstration through official announcements and promotional videos, every student who simply speaks normally is marked as a dissenter. That is the kind of pressure to conform that the Supreme Court decisions in Mirabelli and Mahmoud v. Taylor prohibit. Any district doing so this Friday faces the same legal obligation to notify parents and offer a meaningful opt-out.

Thomas More Society worked with North Kirkwood Middle School parents to submit an opt out from both Wednesday’s video and Friday’s protest, and it has also prepared a model opt-out letter for any family nationwide wishing to exercise their right to have their child excused from “Day of Silence” activities. Parents can access the opt-out letter here, and are encouraged to contact Thomas More Society if their school district does not honor it.

“A school that organizes this protest, announces it in homeroom, and reserves a day on the calendar for it, has made it its own,” said Mary Catherine Martin, Senior Counsel at Thomas More Society. “The Supreme Court has been clear that when a school exposes children to instruction that violates their family’s sincerely held religious beliefs, parents have a constitutional right to know about it in advance and to opt their children out.”

Kirkwood School District committed in writing last November to “full compliance” with the Supreme Court’s Mahmoud v. Taylor decision after Thomas More Society demanded it take down a similar LGBTQ+ promotional video that it had broadcast and then posted for student access without parental notice. Five months later, the district is poised to do the same thing again.

Thomas More Society’s warning letter calls for Kirkwood to comply with Mahmoud and Mirabelli or face suit for injunctive relief, nominal damages, and attorney fees.