Catholic parents fight Massachusetts for custody after school socially ‘transitioned’ their daughter
Joseph and Arlene Kutzko say Massachusetts officials took custody of their daughter after they refused on religious grounds to refer to her as a boy. Now, they are reportedly fighting the state’s effort to give her testosterone.
Catholic parents in Massachusetts are fighting to regain custody of their teenage daughter after her public school allegedly began socially “transitioning” her without their knowledge and state officials subsequently removed her from their home.
Joseph and Arlene Kutzko said the state’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) removed their then-15-year-old daughter, Sophie, from their home in late 2024 after they refused, because of their Catholic faith, to refer to her as a boy, according to a Sept. 13 episode of Fox News’ “Lighthouse Faith” podcast with religion correspondent Lauren Green.
The parents — who spoke on the podcast alongside their attorney, Vernadette Broyles — alleged that the removal came shortly after staff at Algonquin Regional High School in Southborough, Massachusetts, began referring to Sophie by a male name and using male pronouns for her without informing them.
The Kutzkos said Sophie’s high school exposed her to a culture steeped in gender ideology and that she began meeting with a school counselor without their knowledge or consent. The parents said they were instead told Sophie was remaining after school to receive help with math. Broyles alleged that the counselor encouraged Sophie to socially “transition” and that the school later reported the family to DCF after the parents refused to use the male name and pronouns.
“You start with school policies that refuse to inform parents when a child rejects their sex and claims another identity,” Broyles said on the podcast. “That’s part of a system that starts everything down the rabbit hole.”
Green said during a Sept. 14 segment of Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” that the school had no comment on the allegations and DCF had not yet responded to a request for comment.
The parents said that before the dispute with the school began, Sophie had been deeply involved in the Catholic Church, serving as an altar server and lector, leading the Rosary before Mass, and receiving permission to be confirmed one year early.
In a podcast clip aired on “America’s Newsroom,” Joseph Kutzko emotionally read a birthday card Sophie gave him in October 2024, 88 days before DCF removed her from the family’s home, he said.
“Without you, I would have nothing,” the card said. “So wholeheartedly, fully, sincerely, I love you with no end.”
DCF now has custody of Sophie, who is 17, and a permanent restraining order bars her parents and older brother from contacting her, according to the episode. The family further alleged that DCF placed Sophie in a boys’ dormitory, denied her access to Sunday Mass, and placed her on birth control and psychiatric medication.
The Kutzkos are now challenging DCF’s request to obtain court authorization to administer what Broyles described as high-dose testosterone to Sophie. A judge has temporarily blocked the intervention while the case proceeds, according to the podcast. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 29.
“We are actively fighting in court to keep them from really poisoning this young lady with testosterone that would have the capacity to cause her to become potentially infertile, would harm her cardiovascular system, and would have a number of irreversible effects and harms to her body,” Broyles said. “We are actively fighting because DCF wants to proceed with this.”
Arlene Kutzko made an emotional appeal to her daughter in a clip aired during “America’s Newsroom.”
“Please come home. Mama miss[es] you, please,” she said. “I'm begging you, please.”
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