School district agrees to opt-outs for LGBT lessons after Christian families’ lawsuit

September 22, 2026

The Encinitas Union School District in Southern California has agreed to notify parents when lessons include LGBT-related material and allow them to opt their children out, following a lawsuit brought by two Christian families after a book was read to their sons without their prior knowledge.

The Christian Post reports that the school district reached the settlement with the families, and a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California approved the agreement and dismissed the case last week.

The district agreed to pay the two families $175,000, according to the National Center for Law & Policy (NCLP) and First Liberty Institute, another legal group, which represented the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit was brought by the families over an incident at La Costa Heights Elementary School involving the book My Shadow Is Pink which is about a boy who likes girls’ clothing and toys and feels out of place with his family and friends, so his shadow ends up pink instead of the usual blue.

Older students reportedly watched a recorded reading of the book with their kindergarten partners, before being told to ask the younger children the color of their own shadow and trace their outlines on the ground in that color with chalk.

According to the Christian Post, Carlos and Jenny Encinas, whose son attended the school, asked the district to notify parents in advance and give them the choice to keep their children out of similar lessons going forward.

However, the district said no and resolved to continue teaching the lessons without notifying parents or offering an opt-out.

The Encinas family and another local family sued the district in federal court on Sept. 10, 2024, later seeking a preliminary injunction.

Judge M. James Lorenz granted the injunction in part on May 12, 2025 after finding the district had probably broken the First Amendment when it compelled the boys’ speech, forcing them to take part in and express gender-identity messages that conflicted with their Christian faith.

California law excuses students from health instruction that conflicts with a family’s religious beliefs, upon written parental request.

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