Parent Rights vs. State Rights?
I received the article quoted below by email and it reminded me of a long running debate I’ve had with myself. When do a parent’s rights to control their parents education override the states right to see that child brought up in a manner that will likely lead him/her to be a successful citizen? I generally tend towards the parent rights side of the argument. The concept of our children being raised under government control is so scary that I’m reluctant to take *any* steps in that direction. Having said that, I feel that parents do not have a right to deny their children access to facts upon which to make their own decisions. Getting back to the article below, if the schools were only mentioning the existence of gay families, I don’t feel the parents have any right to protest at all. If the teachers were arguing that gay families were moral, I might actually be supporting the parents, despite my own beliefs on the issue. Or at the very least, I’d be a lot more torn. Since, to my knowledge they weren’t, the parents have no ground to stand on as far as I’m concerned.
Updated (2-28-07): If anyone knows where I can find an exact copy of this AP article, please let me know. I would rather link to the source than quote it here. I am not interest in reprinting that does not use this exact text. I responded to the text below, so I want to make sure any link is to the text below.
Update (2-26-07): I had someone from Lexington Cares - a group which supports the school systems right to teach diversity - contact me yesterday with regard to the article below. He didn’t provide me with the source for this article, but he did point out that their website has quite a few similar news links.
Judge tosses lawsuit over talk of same-sex marriage in classroom
A federal judge in Boston Friday threw out a lawsuit filed by parents who wanted to keep their children from learning about same-sex marriage in school.
U.S. district judge Mark Wolf said federal courts have decided in other cases that parents’ rights to exercise their religious beliefs are not violated when their children are exposed to contrary ideas.
The case attracted attention in part because Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex marriage.
”In essence under the Constitution public schools are entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy,” Wolf said in his ruling.
Toni and David Parker of Lexington, Mass., sued after their 5-year-old son brought home a book from kindergarten that depicted a gay family. Another Lexington couple joined the suit after a second-grade teacher read the class a fairy tale about two princes falling in love.
Both couples claimed Lexington school officials violated their parental rights to teach their own morals to their children and said they have religious beliefs that homosexuality is immoral. They said they did not want to dictate curriculum but wanted to be notified before gay couples were discussed so they could remove their children from classrooms.
”It boils down to this simple thing: The parents have a fundamental right to be the primary directors of their children’s upbringing and moral education,” David Parker said Friday.
Jeffrey Denner, an attorney for the parents, said they would appeal the ruling to the first U.S. circuit court of appeals and refile the claims in state court.
John Davis, an attorney for the school officials, said the books did not focus on sex education but merely depicted various families, including those headed by same-sex couples.
Forty-five states ban same-sex marriage, most of them through voter-approved amendments. New Jersey, Vermont, and Connecticut offer civil unions, which offer the protections and benefits of marriage without the title, and California offers domestic partnerships with similar benefits.The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which supported the school officials, praised the ruling
”This is not a case about teaching about homosexuality. This is a case where Lexington sought to teach about diversity and about having respect,” said Sarah Wunsch, ACLU staff attorney. (Denise Lavoie, AP)
February 25th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
try findlaw.com/search under state law, click on MA, see what happens. Otherwise netscape has a tendency to be accurate on articles, try your key terms, it may bring you there.