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Judge Upholds Mandatory LGBTQ Instruction In Maryland School System, Even for ‘Uniquely Vulnerable’ Neurodivergent Students

by Summer August 26, 2023 0 comments

By: Summer

Hopefully, This Decision Will Be Appealed To And Reversed By The SCOTUS!!!

Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland is free to require LGBTQ lessons, a district judge ruled this week, even for students who are “uniquely vulnerable to indoctrination due to [their] neurodivergence.”

Grace Morrison and her husband, who are Roman Catholic, adopted their ten-year-old daughter from Ukraine. She’s been an MCPS student for seven years and has Down syndrome and attention deficit disorder — learning disabilities that make it “practically impossible for [her family] to contradict” LGBTQ instruction, her parents say.

When the Maryland district introduced a gender and sexuality curriculum that exposes children to transgenderism, pronoun usage, drag queens, pride parades, and leather underwear last year, the Morrisons tried to opt their daughter out of the curriculum. For a while, parents could opt their children out of LGBTQ lessons. Then, MCPS removed that option in March. 

Represented by Becket Law, the Morrisons and other parents are asking the district to reinstate opt-out options on the grounds that mandatory LGBTQ curricula violate parents’ right to direct the religious upbringing of their children. The parents suffered their first loss yesterday when a district court denied their appeal to reinstate opt-out. 

Judge Deborah Boardman ruled this week that the Morrisons “do not face any coercion to violate their sacred duty to raise their child in their faith.” In a footnote, Boardman added that the no-opt-out policy does not prevent the Morrisons from trying to teach their daughter their beliefs — even though neurodivergent children are “uniquely vulnerable” to indoctrination, she said.

“That the Morrisons’ child cannot distinguish between what her parents and teachers instruct does not convert the teachers’ instruction into indoctrination — nothing suggests she will be pressured to affirm or agree with the views presented in the storybooks,” Boardman wrote in her opinion. 

But the free exercise of religion guarantees more than an “A for effort,” Becket senior counsel William Haun said. Parents also have the right to hand on their religious beliefs to their children. Additionally, for some of the Muslim parents also represented in the case, classroom discussion about intimate activities is a direct violation of their religious beliefs.

“The thing that’s really astonishing about that footnote is that while it discusses Grace’s family’s situation, the logic of it is reflected throughout the opinion — that when you send your child to public school, the school board can teach that child anything the school board wants to, and so long as the school board is not forcing your child to directly violate his or her faith, and so long as the parent is free to, as it said in the footnote, try to teach something different at home, no matter how impossible, no matter how futile, no matter how incapable the situation is to give the child contrary ideas — then the school board is not violating your religion,” Haun said.

Grace Morrison opted her daughter out of a separate program a few years ago, but MCPS teachers told her this year that opting out of LGBTQ lessons was not possible. So Morrison kept her daughter home from school on the days that teachers discussed pride storybooks in class.

“We were confused and astonished, that we have entrusted the teacher with our parental right to be the primary educator of our children in the basic academics, and now they have decided that they’re going to be presenting very sensitive gender ideology, and overstepping the rights of the parents,” Morrison said. “So it’s a really important case — that we want parental notification reestablished, and the right to opt out of what is in conflict with our religious faith, that we feel we are obligated to raise our daughter in.”

Huan said that MCPS policy is an “anomaly” in Maryland. In neighboring counties, and in 31 other states, the law requires districts to provide families with advance notice and opt-outs on issues of family life and human sexuality.

“MCPS recognized the right to receive advanced notice and opt-outs, as to these books, up to March 23 of this year. And then it withdrew the opt-out with no explanation. In general, in Montgomery County, it promises through its religious-diversity guidelines to provide religious accommodation and opt-out to any family whenever they experience a substantial burden on their religion, from any classroom discussion, assignment, instruction or activity,” Haun said. “So you can opt out of Halloween parties. You can opt out of Valentine’s Day. You can opt out of a music class if they play songs that burden your religion. You can opt out of reading assignments and receiving alternatives. But with regards to pride storybooks, you must be made to read them.”

School starts on August 28. Becket will appeal the decision, but until another judge rules on opt-out, Morrison said, she will ask her daughter’s school if it will notify parents when LGBTQ materials are presented. Haun said, though, that the school district may not give parents honest answers.

“That gets to the core problem here, where the district court is of the view that the school boards can teach anything, so long as they’re not forcing a child directly to violate his or her faith,” he said.

Morrison said her family is praying for a turnaround.

“This goes further than indoctrination. It does harm the innocence of children — so it’s harming them, it’s not just it’s not just indoctrination,” she said. “It’s harmful to their innocence, and probably shakes them at the core of what they know to be real and truthful in the world, to then have them start to question their identity and gender at such a young, tender, innocent age. And that’s what we feel is cruel.”