The Encinitas Union School District has agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the parents of two students over a classroom activity built around the children’s book “My Shadow is Pink,” closing a two-year legal fight that reshaped how the district handles gender-identity lessons. The settlement includes $10,000 earmarked for each student plaintiff’s future college expenses, with $27,000 going toward attorney’s fees and the remainder allocated to the parent plaintiffs.
The case traces back to a 2024 lesson at La Costa Heights Elementary, where two fifth-graders were paired with kindergarten buddies as part of a school buddy program. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, a teacher played a read-along video of “My Shadow is Pink,” which depicts a boy whose shadow is pink while his father and male classmates have blue shadows, and whose pink shadow likes dresses, princesses and pink toys. The teacher then instructed the fifth-graders to have their kindergarten buddies pick a color representing their gender identity and trace their shadows in that color.
The two students’ parents said the activity conflicted with their children’s Christian beliefs, which they say teach that humans are created by God as man or woman and that people cannot choose their own gender identity, per the same account. The parents filed a federal lawsuit against Encinitas school officials in September 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, arguing they should have been allowed to opt their children out of the activity. The suit, as detailed by The Center Square, alleged violations of the students’ free speech rights, the parents’ free exercise rights to direct their children’s religious upbringing, and the 14th Amendment’s due process clause.
District Initially Argued No Opt-Out Was Required
Encinitas school officials had maintained that they were not required to offer an opt-out because the shadow-tracing activity fell outside the health education curriculum, the district's report notes. That position didn’t hold up in court: a federal judge granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction in May 2025, finding they were likely to succeed on the merits of their case.
The ruling arrived just weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its own decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor in June 2025, a case involving Maryland parents who objected on religious grounds to LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks introduced in their children’s classrooms. The high court ruled that the Maryland school board had substantially interfered with those parents’ religious upbringing of their children by introducing the storybooks without advance notice or an opt-out, and that schools generally must provide advance notice and allow parents to opt out of instruction that may substantially interfere with their religious beliefs.
Encinitas Revised Its Notice Policy
Two months after the Mahmoud ruling, in August 2025, Encinitas Union School District changed its religious beliefs policy. The revised policy requires schools to give parents at least five calendar days’ advance notice of covered curriculum and a chance to opt out, and it allows parents to opt out of curriculum that would substantially interfere with religious development or threaten religious beliefs and practices, the outlet reported. The district also withdrew its appeal of the federal court ruling, saying continuing the appeal was no longer fiscally responsible or a prudent use of its limited resources, according to The Center Square.
San Diego Unified made a similar move, amending its own policy last September to let parents request a written opt-out from instruction they believe substantially interferes with their religious beliefs, per the Union-Tribune's reporting. The California Department of Education has said that state law previously allowed parents to opt out of sexual health education overall, but has also cautioned that schools cannot allow opt-outs solely from LGBTQ-related instruction because of potential anti-discrimination violations. The state agency added that districts and charters may still have to offer opt-outs for curriculum that could undermine parents’ religious beliefs and practices, while stressing that the Mahmoud ruling should not require or allow the erasure of any particular group from public school curricular content.
Attorney Calls Settlement a Warning to Other Districts
Nate Kellum, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute who represented the Encinitas plaintiffs, said the settlement should put other California districts on notice. Encinitas Union School District, for its part, said the settlement is not an admission or concession regarding the merits of the case. Marisa Janine-Page, co-counsel for the district defendants, said there are no winners when limited public education resources are diverted from classrooms to prolonged litigation.
The underlying debate over “My Shadow is Pink” had already stirred controversy in North County classrooms before the lawsuit reached its conclusion. Teachers supporting the curriculum have argued the book promotes inclusiveness, according to Fox 5 San Diego, while opponents have pushed for the ability to opt out of lessons that don’t align with their values. At one referenced school board meeting, the station noted there was no action item on the book, so no formal action was taken that night.
