Ninth Circuit Court: Parents Have No Rights in Public Schools
Parents have no rights!
In one of the most brazen anti-parental rulings in recent years, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that parental rights stop once children enter their public-school doors. The November 2, 2005, ruling, Fields v. Palmdale School District, was decided by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the same judge who ruled against the Pledge of Allegiance. He declared in his decision:
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.
He further stated:
We also hold that parents have no due process or privacy right to over-ride the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students.
What does this mean?
The impact of this ruling means parents do not have the right to be the exclusive sex educators of their children. Further, educators have the right to teach children any content or methodology they want without parental legal challenge, translating into a forfeiture of the right for parents to challenge not only sex education content, but anything taught in any subject. This outrageous and dangerous ruling affects nine western states: Washington, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii. Parents beware: this ruling may serve as precedence for other jurisdictions to issue similarly bench-based means of disenfranchisement.
How did this happen?
This real life drama began in December of 2001 when a letter of consent was sent home to parents at the Mesquite Elementary School in Palmdale, California. The letter asked parents for permission to allow students (age seven to ten) to participate in a confidential mental health survey. The survey was conducted by Kristi Seymour, who volunteered as a mental health counselor at the school and was enrolled in a master’s degree program at the California School of Professional Psychology. The purpose of this survey was “to establish a community baseline measure of children’s exposure to early trauma.” The permission letter failed to disclose that the survey included ten sexually explicit questions. The children were asked to rate the statements about their thoughts and feelings on a scale from “never” to “almost all of the time.” The following sex related questions were included in the larger survey of questions:
- Touching my private parts too much
- Thinking about having sex
- Thinking about touching other people’s private parts
- Thinking about sex when I don’t want to
- Washing myself because I feel dirty on the inside
- Not trusting people because they might want sex
- Having sex feelings in my body
- Can’t stop thinking about sex
- Getting upset when people talk about sex
One of many unconscionable aspects of this case is that the parents found out about these questions from their children after they had answered the questions at school. Questions on surveys, questionnaires and evaluations all teach our children as much as curricula.
These facts, coupled with the judicial usurpation of parental rights in public schools, present the need for a vigilant watch by parents on what is taught in their child’s classroom.
Parents call to action
- Inspect all sex education curricula, films and visual-aids to be used in your child’s classroom.
- Get to know the teacher and others who have access to your children. Assess their values if they oversee teaching any sex education materials to your child.
- Decide whether you will “opt-out” your child from any or all sexuality teaching and surveys.
- Maintain open communication with your child so that they will more likely tell you what information or teaching disturbs them at school.
- Attend school board meetings regularly and speak up with like-minded parents if content or teaching is unacceptable to your families.
- If all else fails, consider other options for the schooling of your children.
- Stay abreast of legislation in your state that will limit any parental rights in public schools.
The protection and nurture of our children is our parental right and responsibility.
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