Opt-out policies that allow parents to exempt their kids from gender and sexuality lessons undermine “specific goals the district is trying to advance,” lawyers representing Maryland’s largest school district argued in court on Wednesday.
Muslim and Ethiopian Orthodox parents filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County Public Schools in May after the district reversed its original opt-out policy that gave parents the right to refuse lessons they considered at odds with their traditional views. The lessons instruct teachers to read and lead class discussions on at least one of the district’s selected LGBTQ books per year.
District lawyers and counsel from Becket Law, the firm representing parents, began oral arguments on Wednesday.
Gender and sexuality lessons fall into MCPS’s English Language Arts curriculum, which district lawyers implied was strategic: Maryland law only requires schools to allow opt-out choices for health curriculum.
A student’s right to reject instruction in sexuality is “precisely what this [gender and sexuality] curriculum is trying to prevent,” MCPS lawyers said in court. Mandatory gender and sexuality instruction is “critical for educating children in a diverse society,” the lawyers argued, adding that the curriculum “doesn’t work” if only some children participate.
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