Education & Parental Rights

 SACRAMENTO, Calif. — "California became the first U.S. state to bar school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their child's gender identification change under a law signed Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom". 

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/16/nx-s1-5041437/california-bans-school-rules-requiring-parents-notification-of-childs-pronoun-change#:~:text=California%20bans%20school%20rules%20requiring%20parents%20notification%20of%20child's%20pronoun%20change&text=SACRAMENTO%2C%20Calif.,Gavin%20Newsom.

"The California State Board of Education recently approved the nation’s first statewide ethnic-studies curriculum for K–12 students. The statewide framework recommends numerous times schools’ use of 'A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction.' The 'math equity toolkit' explains that getting the right answer, teacher 'control over the classroom,' and students being required to 'show their work,' are all evidence of how math classrooms maintain 'white supremacy.' 

 As a result of the outcome of a settlement agreement, the University of California System’s board of regents is abandoning the SAT and ACT. The lawsuit had claimed that the tests were biased against minority and low-income students."

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dropping-f-grades-soft-bigotry-low-expectations-lindsey-burke

 "DeSantis signed a bill Friday putting new restrictions on how schools and businesses can talk about race and gender.

'We’re not going to allow and teach that a person simply by virtue of his or her race, color, national origin or sex is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive. That’s wrong,' said the governor who shared the stage with a group of adults and school aged children – many holding 'Stop Woke' and anti-CRT signs – as he spoke at the Mater Academy Charter Middle/High School in Hialeah Gardens.

The bill says a student and employee cannot be told they 'must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the individual played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or national origin.'

It also prohibits instruction or training that says certain races or sexes are inherently privileged or oppressed.

The bill says schools can teach about slavery and the history of racial segregation and discrimination in an 'age-appropriate manner,' but the instruction cannot 'indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.'

'It’s an overall worldview that many people are trying to inject into our kids’ education, and that is not a true education, that is indoctrination,' DeSantis said.

The bill goes into effect July 1." 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/22/us/florida-math-textbooks-critical-r

 "Sunrise Park Middle School in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, near St. Paul, will no longer hand out 'F' grades to students who turn in the lowest quality work. The new grading system will no longer reflect student behavior or tardiness, or whether an assignment was completed on time. Grading, the school’s website reads, perpetuates systemic racism."

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dropping-f-grades-soft-bigotry-low-expectations-lindsey-burke

"Some middle schools in Greenville County won’t give zeros to students even if they never turn in an assignment or cheat or plagiarize homework.

It’s part of a new approach middle school principals decided to pursue this year that was billed as a way to motivate students by taking away the grade-crushing score of a zero on their class grades.

When the issue arose as a question in a January school board workshop, Superintendent Burke Royster said teachers were still giving zeros, just fewer of them. While that may be happening at some schools, particularly Hillcrest Middle School, which the district highlighted for its efforts to implement a policy for teachers to hound students until they complete assignments, teachers from other schools in the district say they’ve been told not to give any zeros no matter what."

https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/education/2016/02/09/greenville-school-board-address-no-zeros-policy/80056334/

 SEATTLE (TND) — WASHINGTON (TND) — "A school district in Washington state is facing backlash for an online handout given to elementary school students teaching them about gender identity, including the idea that people can be 'neither' or 'both' genders.

The assignment appeared to outline how gender can be broken down into three categories: a 'girl,' a 'boy,' and 'neither or both.'" https://komonews.com/news/local/1st-graders-given-gender-identity-assignment-told-they-can-be-neither-or-both-genders-kindergarten-first-school-lgbtq-fluidity-instruction-washington-seattle?fbclid=IwAR0c0l0uDUzQYBVAKeSQXS-eOmcGSR2dvqU1kK-Kexa-GGRnSvVEt7b8UGQ

"It is against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) guidelines to describe sexual conduct or feature any 'grossly offensive' language on a radio or television broadcast. Parental rights in education advocates told The Daily Caller News Foundation that television and radio stations do not allow them to talk about the obscene curriculums and books allowed in schools.

Sanzi told the DCNF that a producer at a television station told her she could not discuss the different types of sex that 10-year-olds learn in the 'Human Growth and Development' curriculum of a Wisconsin school district due to FCC regulations.

'There was anal sex, oral sex and vaginal sex,' Sanzi told the DCNF. 'She was like, ‘oh, my God, like you can’t say that.’ The main thing that she was telling me was that I couldn’t use explicit terms for body parts and I couldn’t describe these different types of sex that that the kids learn about.'

Sanzi said other television stations and radio stations have made similar requests, citing FCC guidelines."

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/what-some-schools-are-teaching-kids-is-so-obscene-parental-rights-activists-cant-even-read-it-on-tv_4829796.html

Excerpt:  “But there’s one thing I’d never tell Nick in a million years, not that it really matters: in fourth grade, at a church youth-group meeting, out in the bushes behind the parsonage, I touched Doug Goble’s dick, and he touched mine. In fact, there were even some mouths involved." Lawn Boy,  page 13

Excerpt: “What if I told you I touched another guy’s dick?” I said. … “What if I told you I sucked it?” … “I was ten years old, but it’s true. I put Doug Goble’s dick in my mouth.”   Lawn Boy, page 44

Fields vs Palmdale School District:

"In 2005 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found in Fields v. Palmdale School District  'that the Meyer-Pierce right [of parents to direct the upbringing of their children] does not exist beyond the threshold of the school door.'
The court stated, 'We conclude that the parents are possessed of no constitutional right to prevent the public schools from providing information on the subject [of sexuality] to their students in any forum or manner they  select.'” 

https://www.parentsrightsined.org/federal-law.html

 "When parents of schoolchildren in Palmdale, California learned from their sons and daughters that they had been questioned in their public elementary school about sexual topics such as the frequency of “thinking about having sex” and “thinking about touching other peoples' private parts,” some of them exercised their constitutional right to take their grievance to the courts.   The questioning was part of a survey the Palmdale School District was conducting regarding psychological barriers to learning.   The parents brought an action in district court against the School District and two of its officials for violating their right to privacy and their right “to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex.”   They brought both federal and state claims.   The district court dismissed the federal causes of action for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted and dismissed the state claims without prejudice to their right to re-file in state court.   We agree, and hold that there is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children, either independent of their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed by it.   We also hold that parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students.   Finally, we hold that the defendants' actions were rationally related to a legitimate state purpose."

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1051665.html

 SB 1834 -  Parental Rights in Education:

 "Requiring district school boards to adopt procedures that comport with certain provisions of law for notifying a student’s parent of specified information; requiring such procedures to reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children in a specified manner; prohibiting a school district from adopting procedures or student support forms that require school district personnel to withhold from a parent specified information or that encourage or have the effect of encouraging a student to withhold from a parent such information; prohibiting a school district from encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a specified manner, etc."

https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=76288&

 "The bill, titled Parental Rights in Education, states that lessons about sexual orientation are banned outright in kindergarten through third grade. It also prohibits lessons in other grades unless they are 'age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate.'" 

https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/understanding-floridas-dont-say-gay-bill/

"The bill establishes the “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” The bill provides that the state, its political subdivisions, any other governmental entity, or other institution may not infringe upon the fundamental rights of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of a minor child. If those entities infringe upon a parent’s fundamental right, they must demonstrate that the action is reasonable and necessary to achieve a compelling state interest, and the action must be narrowly tailored and not otherwise served by less restrictive means.

The bill enumerates a list of rights that a parent possesses in order to direct the education of his or her child and be informed about the child’s educational programs. The bill also requires a school district to promote parental involvement in the public school system by providing access to the child’s studies and instructional materials while recognizing a parent’s right to withdraw the child from objectionable portions of the school’s curriculum.

The bill further requires a parent’s permission before a health care practitioner may provide services, prescribe medicine to the child, or perform a medical procedure, unless otherwise provided by law. The bill provides a misdemeanor penalty for a health care practitioner or similar person who violates the health care provisions and subjects these persons to disciplinary actions." https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=76288&

 "Under a federal law called USC 20 1232(h), parents have a right to see ALL instructional materials, regardless of format or context."

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/

20/1232h 

"Send to the school your request by email with 'REQUEST TO VIEW CURRICULUM PER USC 20 1232(h)' in the SUBJECT field. Include in the body of the email the following:

• Name of the curriculum 
• How and when you may review it
• Include a reasonable deadline,

 federal law applies to ALL curriculum, regardless of format or context. If they claim no hard copy available, ask to attend the class in person."

https://www.parentsrightsined.org/federal-law.html 

"There are OPT-OUT forms for curriculum, health care, counseling, and surveys.
Include with any OPT-OUT Form submitted instructions: 

• YYZ school is not authorized to teach my child anything on (the subject), I haven't been given access to, and 
• I hereby revoke all previous permissions and authorizations.
• You will be held liable for any harm that comes to my child, or my family as a result of your failure to comply with my lawful request."

https://www.parentsrightsined.org/federal-law.html

" Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act:

Parents may "Access their children’s educational records. Educational records include files, documents and other material maintained by the educational institution that is directly related to the student. FERPA gives both parents, custodial and noncustodial, equal access to student information unless the school has evidence of a court order or state law revoking these rights. The information that parents have a right to access include not only grades, but also the child’s disciplinary record, notes from a meeting with the school counselor, or a child’s request to go by a different name or be treated as a different gender. Information like this is needed by parents so that they can ensure that their child’s physical, mental, and emotional needs are being fully met at home and school." 

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

"A new toolkit from the America First Legal (AFL) Foundation informs parents of their rights under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) and lists exactly what this federal law protects.

Armed with this information, parents will be able to hold the education bureaucracy accountable and bring much-needed transparency to America’s K-12 schools.

Under the PPRA, parents are allowed to review the curriculum used to instruct their children in public schools. According to the AFL resource:

Parents have the right to inspect 'any instructional material' used as part of the education curriculum for the student. The parent who wants to exercise this right must request the material; the school does not have to provide access to the material without being asked first. Parents should demand that schools disclose teacher training materials designed to affect or direct student instruction as 'instructional material.'"

"The toolkit continues by providing sample language parents can use to submit their request.

Under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, 20 U.S.C § 1232h, I request the
following:
● Immediate access to all curriculum material, including teacher training
materials, used in [specify class]."

https://www.americanexperiment.org/resource-reminds-parents-of-their-right-to-review-curriculum/