On Thursday, the U.S. District Court for Maryland ruled against a group of elementary school parents who wanted to retain the right to opt their children out of an LGBTQ+ curriculum. Becket Law, which represents the parents in the case Mahmoud v. McKnight, said that the Montgomery County Board of Education decided to remove a state-mandated parental notice rule that would also give parents the right to refuse to have their children read the books.
In its press release, Becket Law noted that the parents’ group was made up of Jews, Protestants, Catholics, and Muslims, all of whom believed that the books and activities were inappropriate for their children. An earlier press release explained:
In fall 2022, the Montgomery County Board of Education announced over 20 new “inclusivity” books for its pre-K through eighth grade classrooms. But rather than focusing on basic civility and kindness, these books champion pride parades, gender transitioning, and pronoun preferences for children. For example, one book tasks three- and four-year-olds to search for images from a word list that includes “intersex flag,” “[drag] queen,” “underwear,” “leather,” and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker. Another encourages fifth graders to discuss what it means to be “non-binary.” Other books advocate a child-knows-best approach to gender transitioning, telling students that a decision to transition doesn’t have to “make sense” and that doctors only “guess” when identifying a newborn’s sex anyway. The teacher’s guide to another book about a playground same-sex romance invites schoolkids to share with classmates how they feel when they “don’t just ‘like’ but … ‘like like’” someone. The curriculum suppresses free speech and independent thinking by having teachers tell students they are “hurtful” if they question these controversial ideologies.
When the board announced that the school would begin using the “Pride storybooks,” it promised parents that they would be notified when the books would be read and that they could choose not to have their children read them. But in March of this year, the board told parents that they would not be notified when the books were used and that they could no longer have their children opt out. Becket Law said that one board member told parents that the move was justified because allowing parent to opt their children out of the books that “offend your religious rights or your family values or your core beliefs is just telling [your] kid, ‘Here’s another reason to hate another person.’” Becket Law maintained that the decision violated the board’s policies, the Constitution, and Maryland law. It also notes that the Supreme Court has ruled that “children are not wards of the state, and that parents have the right to make key decisions about the education of their children on such critical matters concerning family life and human sexuality.”
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The parents sued the board seeking a preliminary injunction, which was denied Thursday. Becket Law said that it plans to continue to represent the parents in their fight, which is set for the fall in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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