Parents have “no constitutional right to prevent the public schools from providing information on [the subject of sex] to their students in any forum or manner they select,” according to a ruling handed down by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Nov. 2.
Elementary school parents had filed a lawsuit against the Palmdale School District in Los Angeles after their children came home from school complaining about having been asked troubling questions regarding sex during a survey.
The survey, which the district stopped in 2002 after parents’ complaints, was given to students in the first, third and fifth grades. It was given to gather information “regarding psychological barriers to learning,” according to court papers.
The outraged parents in the lawsuit said they had the sole right “to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex,” but the appeals court upheld a lower court ruling in favor of the schools.
In the survey were questions about whether the children thought about having sex, thought about touching other people’s “private parts” and whether they could “stop thinking about having sex.”
School officials said the survey was simply meant to measure children’s exposure to early trauma and assist in better meeting their needs.
Before the surveys were administered, parents signed consent forms. But the consent forms never mentioned that sex would be a topic.
The court ruled, “In summary, we hold that there is no free-standing fundamental right of parents ‘to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex in accordance with their personal and religious values and beliefs’ and that the asserted right is not encompassed by any other fundamental right.
“… We conclude only that the parents are possessed of no constitutional right to prevent the public schools from providing information on that subject to their students in any forum or manner they select,” the court added.
The three-judge panel said, “Once parents make the choice as to which school their children will attend, their fundamental right to control the education of their children is, at the least, substantially diminished.”
(BP, ABP)
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