Case Closed: Encinitas School District Pays $175,000 After Forcing Fifth Grader to Teach Kindergartner Gender Ideology

More than two years after a Christian fifth grader was forced to teach a kindergartner about gender identity against his conscience, the case is over, and it ends with parents winning on two fronts. The Encinitas Union School District (EUSD) has adopted a policy giving parents advance notice and the right to opt their children out whenever gender ideology, or any other material that substantially undermines a family’s religious beliefs, is taught in class, and has agreed to pay the Encinas family and another local family $175,000 to settle their federal civil rights lawsuit. A federal judge signed off on the settlement on September 14, formally closing a legal battle California Family Council has followed since it began.

The policy change is the more lasting win. It protects every family in the district going forward, not just the plaintiffs, and brings EUSD in line with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Mahmoud v. Taylor decision, which requires public schools nationwide to give parents notice and an opt-out whenever instruction substantially conflicts with their sincerely held religious beliefs. Getting there took a favorable federal court ruling along the way, and a Christian family’s testimony in front of the President of the United States.

From Kinderbuddy to Courtroom

The case began in May 2024, when a teacher at La Costa Heights Elementary School read My Shadow Is Pink to a fifth-grade class as part of EUSD’s “Kinderbuddy” mentoring program. The book teaches children that gender is something to choose, not a fact given by God through biology. Fifth graders, including Shea Encinas, then took the lesson to their kindergarten “buddies,” asking each child to pick a color for their “inner” gender and tracing the child’s body in chalk in that color.

Shea’s parents, Carlos and Jenny Encinas, had already exercised their legal right to pull their son from similar material in health class. When they asked EUSD for the same notice and opt-out rights in the mentoring program, the district refused, insisting it could keep teaching gender ideology through Kinderbuddy with no notice to parents at all.

When the Encinas family objected, the district and some parents did not back down quietly. The PTA president organized a “Pink Out the Hate” day targeting the family, and Shea and his brother were bullied badly enough that the family eventually withdrew both boys from EUSD altogether.

Represented by the National Center for Law & Policy and First Liberty Institute, the Encinas family and another local family sued EUSD in federal court in September 2024, arguing the district compelled their sons to speak a message that violated their Christian faith.

Courts, the Supreme Court, and a Hearing With the President

The lawsuit built momentum from there. In May 2025, U.S. District Judge M. James Lorenz found the boys were likely unconstitutionally compelled to affirm views they did not hold, and ordered EUSD to give parents advance notice and an opt-out before teaching gender identity content in the buddy program. Weeks later, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Mahmoud v. Taylor, holding that the First Amendment requires public schools nationwide to let parents opt their children out of instruction that substantially conflicts with the family’s religious convictions.

That September, Shea and his mother told their story to the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission at its second hearing, where President Trump introduced Shea to the room. Two months later, facing the weight of Mahmoud and the injunction, EUSD dropped its appeal and rewrote its policy to grant the notice and opt-out rights it had denied parents for more than a year.

A Settlement, Nearly a Year Later

With the district’s own board members, administrators, and teachers facing depositions, EUSD agreed in July 2026 to pay $175,000 to close the case for good. Because minors are involved, a federal judge entered the order approving the settlement and dismissing the suit on September 14.

A Warning to Every District in California

“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.

Greg Burt, Vice President of California Family Council, framed the outcome this way:

Two years and $175,000 later, EUSD finally admitted what parents already knew: God gave these children to their mothers and fathers, not to a school board. No district has the right to turn a kindergartner’s fifth-grade buddy into a spokesman for gender ideology that violates his faith. The Encinas family paid a price for standing firm on God’s truth, and their courage should embolden every California parent to protect their own children from the dangerous, degrading ideology our legislators and school officials keep pushing on them.”

Know Your Rights

Mahmoud v. Taylor now stands behind every California parent who wants notice and an opt-out from lessons that conflict with their faith, not just families willing to sue. California Family Council’s parental rights resources page walks parents through exactly how to exercise that right in their own district. No family should have to spend two years in federal court to protect what God has already entrusted to them.