Parents ask Supreme Court to take up case to restore opt-outs for instruction on gender and sexuality
Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Montgomery County, Maryland school district are appealing to the Supreme Court to protect their parental rights.
A group of Muslim, Jewish and Christian parents from a Maryland school district are asking the United States Supreme Court to protect their right to opt their kids out of a gender and sexuality curriculum that they believe is not age-appropriate, according to an appeal filed Thursday.
The Montgomery County Board of Education removed parental notices and opt-outs for instruction on books that discuss gender transitions, pride parades and pronoun preferences with kids as young as three and four last year.
Now, some of the district's parents are continuing their legal fight, asking the Supreme Court to restore the curriculum opt-out after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to do so in Mahmoud v. Taylor.
Becket which represents the parents, announced the news Friday, arguing that the parents' inability to opt-out is a violation of Maryland law, the Board’s policies and the advice of its own elementary school principals.
William Haun, senior counsel at Becket, told Fox News Digital that Montgomery County has a "long tradition" of letting parents, not the government, introduce their kids to sensitive issues about gender and sexuality.
"The School Board’s decision to cut parents out of these discussions flouts that enduring tradition and common sense," he said. "We're asking the Justices to restore notice and opt-outs, and allow parents to raise their children according to their beliefs."
In 2022, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) introduced the new "inclusivity" books to the pre-K through fifth grade student curriculum.
For example, one book titled "Pride Puppy" asks three and four-year-olds to find images based on a word bank that includes "intersex flag," "drag queen," "underwear," "leather," as well as the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker, as Fox News Digital previously reported. In another book, teachers are instructed to say doctors only "guess" when identifying a newborn’s sex.
One book titled, "Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope," promotes what Becket calls "a child-knows-best approach" to gender transitioning. In one part, a mother tells her children that the decision to transition doesn’t have to "make sense." Later in the book, when a child explains their chosen gender to the teacher, the teacher describes herself as the student, learning from the child's experience.
MCPS told Fox News Digital that since the case is still pending litigation, they did not have a statement to share on the matter.
Grace Morrison, board member of Kids First, an association of parents and teachers advocating for notice and opt-outs in Montgomery County Schools previously told Fox News Digital that she is fighting against the district's policy that no longer gives parents the choice to opt their child out of the curriculum because the content would rob her 10-year-old daughter of her innocence.
"The School Board is pushing a controversial ideology that has been rejected by governments around the world and has even been criticized by the Board’s own principals as inappropriate for the intended age group," Morrison said Friday of the Supreme Court appeal. "Children deserve a period of innocence. The Supreme Court should take this case, restore the opt-out, and let parents decide how and when to introduce their own elementary school kids to these sensitive topics."
Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, said parents shouldn’t have to take a back seat when it comes to introducing their children to complex and sensitive issues regarding gender and sexuality.
"Nearly every state requires parental consent before high schoolers can attend sex-ed," he said. "Parents should have the right to excuse their elementary school children when related instruction is introduced during story hour."
The Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case this fall.
