By: Paul Goldberg – Senior Correspondent | LGBT Politics USA

SEATTLE, WA — (September 18, 2026) — A Washington father has taken the Lake Washington School District to federal court, alleging officials violated his constitutional rights when they refused to provide the broad religious opt-out he requested for his elementary-school son from LGBTQ-related classroom instruction.




Konstantin Averkiev filed Averkiev v. Lake Washington School District et al. on September 8, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Court records classify the case as a civil-rights action brought under 42 U.S.C. §1983. Averkiev has demanded a jury trial.

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The lawsuit places another dispute involving parental religious rights and LGBTQ-inclusive public-school instruction before the federal courts little more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court addressed related issues in the landmark Mahmoud v. Taylor case.

Father Says School Failed to Provide Notice

Averkiev, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, says his Christian beliefs concerning sex, gender and marriage conflict with some of the instruction and requirements used by the district.

According to ADF’s account, Averkiev met with his son’s fourth-grade teacher in September 2025 and requested advance notice and an opportunity for his son to be excused from LGBTQ-related instruction. ADF says the teacher agreed.

The dispute escalated in June 2026.

Averkiev alleges his son returned home after participating in a Pride Month lesson and discussed what he described as instruction involving gender-transition surgery. According to the lawsuit, Averkiev had not received advance notice of the lesson.

The district offers a substantially different description of what occurred.

Lake Washington School District Executive Director of Communications Shannon Parthemer said the district reviewed the lesson and described it as focusing on empathy, inclusion, bullying prevention and school belonging.

According to the district, students reviewed school-climate data, considered the effects of bullying and biased remarks and discussed actions that could help students—including LGBTQ students—feel safer and more connected at school.




Dispute Continued as Son Entered Fifth Grade

Ahead of the boy’s fifth-grade year, Averkiev and ADF submitted a broader request seeking notice and religious exemptions from LGBTQ-related instruction and certain school requirements.

ADF says the district rejected nearly all of those requests while recognizing exemptions already available for sexual-health instruction and surveys.

The district’s own website confirms that Lake Washington provides sexual-health education beginning in fourth grade and maintains exemption procedures for that curriculum. Parents also receive advance notice for HIV/AIDS prevention instruction, subject to the district’s stated exemption requirements.

The distinction between those established exemptions and Averkiev’s requested religious opt-out from other classroom material is now at the center of the federal case.




Lawsuit Invokes First and 14th Amendments

Averkiev alleges the district’s actions violate protections under the First and 14th Amendments, including his right to direct his child’s religious upbringing.

ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of the organization’s Center for Parental Rights, argues that those constitutional protections extend beyond the opt-outs expressly required under Washington law.

Those assertions remain allegations. The court has not ruled that Lake Washington School District violated Averkiev’s constitutional rights.

The lawsuit seeks injunctive and declaratory relief as well as damages and attorneys’ fees.

Supreme Court’s Mahmoud Ruling Looms Over Dispute

The lawsuit arrives following the Supreme Court’s June 2025 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case involving parents from multiple religious backgrounds who objected to LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks used in Montgomery County, Maryland elementary schools.

The Supreme Court held that those parents had demonstrated entitlement to preliminary relief from the district’s policy denying notice and opt-outs. The Court directed that they receive advance notice when the challenged books or similar material would be used and be permitted to excuse their children while the litigation continued.

The decision did not prohibit schools from teaching LGBTQ-inclusive material, and legal analysis following the ruling has cautioned against treating Mahmoud as an unlimited right to reject any classroom content. The case involved particular circumstances surrounding young children, religious exercise, specific curricular material and the elimination of previously available opt-outs.

How far that precedent reaches is consequently an important question in the Washington litigation.

ADF contends Mahmoud supports Averkiev’s demand for broader religious accommodations. Whether the facts and district policies in Lake Washington fall within the constitutional principles established in that case will ultimately be for the federal courts to determine.




District Defends Inclusive Learning Environment

Lake Washington School District says it recognizes parents’ rights under Washington law to excuse children from sexual-health curriculum and surveys while maintaining its responsibility to provide a safe environment for all students.

The district’s existing policies prohibit discrimination based on characteristics including religion, sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identity. Its gender-inclusive schools policy also states that its purpose is to provide transgender and gender-expansive students equal opportunities for learning and achievement.

That leaves the federal court confronting competing questions involving religious exercise, parental authority, public-school administration and the district’s policies protecting LGBTQ students.

For now, however, Averkiev v. Lake Washington School District remains newly filed litigation, and none of the plaintiff’s constitutional allegations has been adjudicated.

Stay with JRL CHARTS LGBT Politics USA for continuing coverage of LGBTQ rights, education policy, religious-liberty disputes and federal court cases shaping civil rights across the United States.




Paul Goldberg
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