(LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) is getting involved in the fight over a Massachusetts teen taken away from her Catholic parents and potentially being “transitioned” by the state while in its custody.

Joseph and Arlene Kutzko haven’t been allowed to see their daughter Sophie in nearly two years. Since then, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) has housed her in a boys dormitory and put her on birth control pills and antipsychotic medications. 

The local school system “exposed our daughter to teachings on LGBTQ and topics that conflict with our Catholic beliefs about human dignity, creation as male and female, and Catholic teaching,” Sophie’s father Joseph said. He explained that while he and his wife had been told that their daughter was staying after school for “extra math help,” she was actually receiving secret counseling at Algonquin Regional High School. “We didn’t find out until after she was removed,” Joseph said. “It came on like a tornado.” 

The case took on a new urgency last week when the parents learned the state wants to start Sophie on high dosage testosterone, which the parents know could irrevocably harm her life. They have filed a motion challenging any attempt to “poison” their daughter. Their next court date is set for October 29.

On September 17, the DOE’s Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) announced it is investigating The Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough in Massachusetts to see if its conduct in the case violated the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, which requires parental consent for any evaluation of a student’s “mental health, sex behaviors and attitudes, religious beliefs or any other invasive sensitive subjects”; or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which requires parents be allowed to access their children’s education records.

“Parents have a right to know what is happening with their children at school, particularly when it concerns deeply personal matters involving their health and well-being,” SPPO director Frank Miller said. “These egregious allegations are not an isolated problem. Families deserve answers and SPPO will thoroughly investigate reports like this and hold any educational institution that violates federal law accountable.” 

Far-left Democrat Gov. Maura Healey has denied that Sophie was removed over a “gender-affirming care” issue, claiming DCF simply “removed the child after there were criminal charges filed against the parents.” Family attorney Vernadette Broyles calls the claim “very dishonest,” noting the charges in question were resolved in a non-guilty disposition almost a year ago.

The indoctrination of children with left-wing ideology on sexuality and other agenda items has long been a major concern in American schools and libraries, from book shelves to drag events to classroom materials to even “transitioning” troubled children without parental input. Many schools have also displayed hostility to the rights and employment of individual teachers who refuse to go along with such agendas. Across the nation, controversy has also erupted in recent years over schools and libraries adopting books that attempt to expose sexual themes and activity to children, often in graphic detail and with pornographic imagery depicting specific sex acts.

The Trump administration has taken a proactive stance against such “woke” activism in education, having issued executive orders to deny federal funds to educational entities that indoctrinate students through Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion programs, among other executive actions to combat LGBT proselytization in classrooms and “transgender” intrusion into girls’ restrooms and lockers and female-specific sports teams.

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