Joseph Kutzko was charged with assaulting the child in January 2025, not long before the child was removed from the family’s home. Mother Arlene Kutzko was charged with witness intimidation in connection with the same incident. They have claimed the child's removal from their home is linked to their gender transition.

A Southborough family has stepped into the national spotlight with claims that their local school seeded — and the state of Massachusetts is facilitating — their child’s gender transition. But court records paint a different picture.

The case puts another family squarely in the middle of the cultural, political and religious debate over transgender rights. On Thursday, the Trump administration announced the Department of Education is launching an investigation into the school district.

Court filings and statements from school officials suggest the child was removed from the parents’ custody following allegations of a violent incident. Yet Joseph and Arlene Kutzko, who first told their side of the story on a Fox News podcast posted Sept. 13, have sought to focus attention on the issue of parental rights.

On that podcast, the parents pleaded for the return of their child, who is currently in the custody of the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and said they’re trying to prevent the state from helping the teenager start gender transition medications.

”The most important thing is to bring her back to our family,” Joseph Kutzko told the podcast host. “But a shorter term goal is to prevent them from giving her testosterone.”

The case was reported to the state in early 2025. Both parents were charged in connection with an incident at the family’s Southborough home in late January of that year, according to court documents. WBUR is not identifying the teenager, who is a minor.