Parental rights submerged by MD county's sex-ed decision

Parental rights submerged by MD county's sex-ed decision

Jim Brown
OneNewsNow.com
July 5, 2007

The Christian legal group Liberty Counsel says it is considering whether to file another federal lawsuit challenging a sex-education program in Maryland's largest school district.

Last week the Maryland State Board of Education ruled in favor of a sex-ed program in Montgomery County that affirms homosexuality, transgenderism, and teen condom use. In the 17-page opinion, the state panel said it would not "second-guess the appropriateness" of the curriculum. It also claimed that the right of parents to control their children's upbringing "is not absolute" and "must bend to the state's duty to educate its citizens."

Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver says such a claim is contrary to common sense and American history. "Schools should not be an adversary to the parent," he says; "they should be an extension of the parents' wishes -- because, after all, they are engaged in helping the parent bring up the child in the parents' value system."

But according to the Christian attorney, that is no longer the case in public education. "[W]hat we're now seeing is exactly the opposite," he laments. "We're seeing schools, and even some courts, say that indeed there could be this adversarial relationship, and that parents' rights cease to exist, essentially, when they drop their child off at the schoolhouse gate."

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)