FOR THE RECORD: Arlene and Joseph Kutzko’s Statement to the Worcester Juvenile Court Prior to Their Critical October 29, 2026 Hearing that Could Decide Their Daughter’s Fate
Editor’s Note:
Nearly two years ago, Arlene Kutzko brushed her only daughter’s hair as she put on lip gloss, and sent her off to school. She has not seen or spoken to her since.
Sophie Kutzko, now 17 and a biological female, has been in Massachusetts DCF custody for almost two years. According to her parents, she is living in a group home with boys while seeking to transition without their involvement or consent. The family—practicing Catholics from Southborough—says the process began with social transition at Algonquin Regional High School without their knowledge and that DCF has sought to move forward with high-dose testosterone.
Criminal charges against the parents stemming from the events surrounding the removal were resolved without findings of guilt. A juvenile court judge has previously blocked the testosterone treatments. A critical hearing is scheduled for this Thursday, October 29, in Worcester Juvenile Court. Joseph and Arlene Kutzko are hopeful the judge will again protect their daughter by continuing to block the treatments against their wishes.
Arlene and Joseph Kutzko’s Statement to the Court October 29, 2026
To the Honorable Court:
Briefly,
We write as Sophie’s parents; hearts shattered yet resolute, as this Court contemplates authorizing testosterone for our daughter against our will. Sophie is our daughter, created female by God. We raised her Catholic. After DCF placement she said, “I used to be a Catholic.” Our First Amendment right to direct her religious and moral upbringing has never been legitimately weighed. The Court has never found us unfit. We accepted pretrial probation only as an unwanted compromise, not an admission of guilt. We are wholly innocent and nearly bankrupt, fighting the State’s infinite resources while protecting Sophie and her brother. Is this how the State claims victory over a helpless family?
This has never been about parental guilt. It has always been about transgender affirmation and imposing anti-family, anti-Catholic values on all of us. Professionals including doctors, DCF lawyer Leah Metro and bosses, social worker Shayla Stoudemire and her bosses, teachers, school counselor Denise Brienze, Superintendent Gregory Martineau, Principal Sean Bevan and others, have all contributed to the medicalization of Sophie’s distress. Currently Sophie’s taking clonidine, fluoxetine, birth control, and melatonin, producing documented transiently dangerously low blood pressure and brain fog. Now they push irreversible testosterone. Without our knowledge or consent, she began breast binding, and she contemplates further surgery. None of this will make Sophie a boy. These interventions cause sterility, loss of sexual function, bone damage, cognitive harm, cardiovascular problems, and deeper psychological fractures. The evidence supporting testosterone is nonexistent and highly controversial; the harm is real and permanent.
Most childhood gender distress resolves without drugs or social transition. Yet these professionals overrode our judgment, severed family bonds for nearly two years, and treated our refusal to affirm a falsehood as abuse. They have forbidden contact. Sophie cannot safely reach out without fear of retaliation. What are they afraid of? Is she trapped in a loyalty bind? Since we cannot help her and Sophie knows it, and since DCF makes every rule that Sophie lives by, can’t the Court see that Sophie cannot safely reach out without fear of retaliation, even if she wanted to? Any positive thoughts of her family must be buried deep simply for her to survive.
If in two to ten years the irreversible harm they have amplified culminates in the unthinkable, like that suffered by Yaeli Martinez, will society simply label it “suicide” and let those that are responsible walk away? Or will it be recognized as wrongful death, or even, under a proper accounting of causation and knowing endangerment, something closer to culpable homicide?
We love Sophie with storge, philia, and above all agape, the selfless love that seeks her true and lasting good, not the temporary affirmation of confusion. Affirmation that rushes a child toward permanent medicalization is not love; it is desertion of duty. Our love says: You are not in the wrong body. You were lied to. You are cherished exactly as God created you.
We plead with this Court: refuse testosterone. Stop the chemical path already clouding her mind. Restore parental authority and send her home now. Hold accountable for those who led her into darkness. Do not allow them continued access to other vulnerable children. Choose protection over permanent injury. Choose parental rights and religious liberty over an ideological experiment.
With broken but unyielding hearts,
Arlene, Joe, and Walter Kutzko
See the Fox News story to learn more about the Kutzko’s story, and how you can support their fight for their daughter.
Thank you from the Kutzko’s for sharing the nightmare we’re living through and please help us and pray for us. Our case will create case law that could be applied to your family. Hopefully we win but if bad case law is created it could be applied to your family as well. givesendgo.com/kutzko