In a precedent-setting ruling by Fresno County Superior Court Judge Donald S. Black on April 28, Simpson Thacher, along with the ACLU of Northern California, achieved a victory for the plaintiffs in American Academy of Pediatrics, et al. v. Clovis Unified School District. The plaintiffs included parents of students in California’s Clovis Unified School District (the “District”), the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. The ruling affirmed that California students have a right to sex education that is complete, medically accurate and bias-free. It is the first ruling to interpret the requirements of a 2003 California law regarding sex education and finds that abstinence-only instruction used by the District is unlawful on the grounds of medical accuracy and bias.
In 2012, the Firm partnered with the ACLU to file a complaint against the District for failure to provide comprehensive, medically accurate, and bias-free HIV/AIDS and sex education to its middle- and high-school students, thereby putting teens’ health at risk by promoting misinformation and denying them instruction on critical topics. By February 2014, plaintiffs’ efforts had caused the District to remove incorrect and biased materials from classrooms as well as add accurate information about all FDA-approved methods of contraception and STI-prevention, inclusive information about sexual orientation, and robust subject-matter training for teachers.
In recognition of the plaintiffs’ success in vindicating an important right for tens of thousands of students, the Court granted substantial attorneys’ fees to Simpson Thacher and the ACLU.
The Simpson Thacher team included Alexis Coll-Very, Simona Strauss, Stephen Blake, Melissa Schmidt, Christopher James, Lee Brand and Caitlyn Chacon.
To read the full decision, please click here.