Maryland Students Cannot Opt-Out of ‘Inclusive Lessons,’ Court Rules
A Maryland court has ruled against a lawsuit brought forward by three families who were seeking the ability to remove their children from lessons that conflicted with their religious beliefs.
The lawsuit, Tamer Mahmoud et al. v. McKnight et al., was filed by parents from the Montgomery County Public Schools. Their aim was to reinstate a policy that would allow students to opt out of lessons that clashed with “their sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage, human sexuality, and gender.” The court denied the request for a preliminary injunction on the removal of this policy.
Judge Deborah L. Boardman, who was appointed by President Biden, denied the request, asserting that the parents were not compelled to violate their religious beliefs to access a public education.
“The no-opt-out policy does not pressure the parents to refrain from teaching their faiths, to engage in conduct that would violate their religious beliefs, or to change their religious beliefs. The policy may pressure them to discuss the topics raised by the storybooks with their children, but those discussions are anticipated, not prohibited, by the parents’ faiths,” Boardman decided.
While the judge denied the request for a preliminary injunction, the court will continue to hear arguments from the plaintiffs before issuing a final decision on the policy.
Eric Baxter, senior counsel for the law firm representing these parents, said that he was “disappointed” in the court’s decision, according to a statement given to The New York Post.
“Parents have a fundamental right to guide the upbringing of their children on complex and sensitive issues, including gender and sexuality,” Baxter stated.
The outrage among Maryland parents was accelerated last year when the state’s largest school district introduced a series of LGBTQ-related books for elementary-grade students. These books generated protests from parents of various religious backgrounds who expressed concerns about LGBTQ+ and sexual content being introduced into children’s classrooms.
Earlier this year, TPUSA reported on a Maryland elementary school that came under scrutiny for incorporating “LGBTQ+ inclusive texts” into classroom reading instruction without the consent of parents. A mother expressed her frustration in an interview with TPUSA, emphasizing that “parents should get an option to opt-out if they do not want to participate.”
