At the core of this case is the right of parents to direct their children's religious upbringing and ensure that right is not surrendered simply because parents send their child to public school.
Becket, a religious liberty law firm, brought the lawsuit on behalf of a diverse group of families in Montgomery County Maryland, saying the school district "decided to take away from parents the ability to know what their children are learning about complex and sensitive issues on sexuality and gender identity" starting in kindergarten.
"Opt-outs were taken away and withdrawn without any public explanation in March of 2023 even as the school board allowed for notice and opt-outs to continue for everything else that you could learn about in Montgomery County schools or participate in like Halloween parties or Valentine's Day or other curricular activities," says Becket attorney William Haun. "This made Montgomery County an outlier both in Maryland as well as nationwide."
Parents of younger children are objecting to storybooks that celebrate gender transitioning, pride parades, and pronoun preferences with kids as young as three and four. Older students can opt out when similar topics are introduced during high school health class.
One book tasks three and four-year-olds to search for images from a word list that includes “intersex flag,” “drag queen,” “underwear,” “leather,” and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist, according to a Beckett news release.
Haun says this kind of instruction goes to the core of a child's self-understanding.
"That's exactly where parents have the ability to direct and guide their children both in their education in general and their religious upbringing in particular," says Haun. "So, we brought a lawsuit on behalf of several hundred families in Montgomery County to restore that basic right of parents to know what their children are learning and to help their children out of instruction that violates their religious beliefs."
The oral argument is scheduled for April 22nd. Haun says Becket is "confident that the Supreme Court will uphold that First Amendment right for all Americans."
