Opponents of Montgomery County sex education take appeals to courts
Opponents of new sex education lessons in Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) have taken their appeal to the courts. An appeal filed suit in state court seeks to reverse a decision by the Maryland State Board of Education, when it declined to "second-guess the appropriateness" of the new curriculum materials and found no violation of the law. MCPS officials have spent five years developing lessons to introduce older students to sexual orientation, a topic that, until field tests in the spring, could be addressed only in response to a student's inquiry. The first set of lessons was halted in 2005 by a federal judge, who cited materials critical of religious fundamentalism. New lessons, rewritten from scratch and tightly scripted, have survived an appeal to the state board. A local community group, Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC), and the Liberty Council, a nationally known litigation group that joined in the 2005 court fight, have gained a like-minded ally, the Thomas More Law Center. "I'm impressed with the principled and steadfast opposition by these pro-family groups to this outrageously hedonistic and life-threatening sexuality curriculum," says Richard Thompson, the law center’s president. "The only thing outrageous is the opponents’ consistent misrepresentation of what this curriculum actually says and does," responds MCPS spokesman Brian Edwards. CRC spokeswoman Michelle Turner says she hopes the court will "at least put a halt to the implementation this fall of the curriculum."
Washington Post
By Daniel de Vise
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: Background on the long-running controversy, including the 2005 ruling, is available starting at the link below.]
[NSBA School Law pages on the controversy over MCPS’ sex education curriculum]