By For years, parents who warned that public schools were secretly helping children adopt new gender identities were told they were imagining a culture-war conspiracy. They were assured that schools were merely creating “safe spaces,” that social transition was not medical treatment and that no government agency would take a child simply because her parents refused to affirm a new identity.
Another Massachusetts family now says that is precisely what happened to them.
A Massachusetts family says the state took custody of their teenage daughter after they refused to affirm her as a boy, citing their Catholic faith.
The parents allege a school counselor socially transitioned their daughter without their knowledge, then reported them to the… pic.twitter.com/cpHWhMHTXb
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 14, 2026
Joseph and Arlene Kutzko, devout Catholics from Southborough, are fighting to regain custody of their 17-year-old daughter, Sophie, after the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families removed her from their home in December 2024, according to Fox News. The parents say staff members at Algonquin Regional High School had already begun socially transitioning Sophie as a boy without their knowledge and that a school counselor later reported the family to child-welfare authorities.
Sophie was 15 when the state removed her. Her parents say they have not spoken with her since late 2024, and a restraining order now bars Joseph, Arlene and Sophie’s older brother from contacting her. The state retains guardianship of the teenager.
The family’s account, first detailed by Fox News Radio, is especially striking because allegations of physical abuse against Joseph were later deemed unfounded, according to the report. The parents contend that contact remained cut off because they would not call their daughter by a male name or use male pronouns.
Their attorney, Vernadette Broyles, said the custody fight followed a pattern that parental-rights advocates have been warning about for years: A school conceals a child’s new identity from her family, treats the child as someone else during the school day and then brings child-welfare officials into the dispute when the parents refuse to cooperate.
“You start with school policies that refuse to inform parents when a child rejects their sex and claims another identity,” Broyles said. “That’s part of a system that starts everything down the rabbit hole.”
According to the family, Massachusetts has since housed Sophie in a boys’ dormitory, denied her the opportunity to attend Sunday Mass and placed her on birth control and psychiatric medication. Her parents are seeking a full psychological evaluation and opposing efforts to begin a medical transition.
They recently won at least a temporary reprieve when a judge blocked the state from administering high-dose testosterone. The family’s next court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 29.
The separation has left the parents pleading publicly for their daughter’s return. During an emotional television appearance, Joseph read from a birthday card Sophie gave him in October 2024, shortly before the state removed her.
“Without you I would have nothing so wholeheartedly fully sincerely I love you with no end.”
Arlene delivered an even more direct appeal: “Mama miss you. Please come home. I’m begging you, please.”
Algonquin Regional High School has not commented on the allegations that a counselor socially transitioned Sophie without informing her parents or contacted DCF. The agency did not respond to requests for comment in the initial reporting and has not publicly explained why it continues to hold guardianship. Because the dispute is proceeding in juvenile court, much of the official record is not publicly available.
That leaves important facts known only through the family’s account. It does not, however, make the larger controversy imaginary.
Massachusetts officially permits schools to withhold a student’s asserted gender identity from parents under some circumstances. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge brought by parents in Ludlow, Massachusetts, whose child asked school employees to use a different name and pronouns while continuing to use the child’s original name and female pronouns when speaking with the family. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that such treatment did not amount to medical care and said nondisclosure allowed students to express an identity without fear of “parental backlash,” noted Reuters.
In other words, the secret social transition that parents were told never happened has already been defended successfully in federal court.
Nor would the Kutzkos be the first parents to lose custody amid a dispute over whether they must affirm a child’s transgender identity. Indiana authorities previously removed a teenager from the home of Catholic parents Mary and Jeremy Cox following a conflict over the child’s gender identity. State officials argued that the parents’ conduct contributed to the teenager’s emotional distress and eating disorder, while the parents said they were punished for their religious beliefs. The Supreme Court declined to hear their appeal in 2024.
Broyles is now urging Congress to make clear that a parent’s refusal to affirm a gender transition cannot, by itself, be treated as child abuse. The Kutzkos’ case demonstrates why such protections are necessary. Once a school assumes the authority to conceal a child’s identity from her parents, and the state assumes the authority to punish those parents for refusing to participate, “parental rights” become little more than words on paper.
Americans were told schools were not keeping these secrets. They were told social transition was harmless and entirely separate from medical intervention. They were told parents would not lose their children for declining to affirm a new gender identity.
The Kutzkos say the school kept the secret, the state took their daughter and officials then moved toward giving her testosterone. The thing that liberals insist never happens has happened again.
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