As the new academic year begins, schools throughout California are grappling with how to carry out a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing parents to withdraw their child from classroom lessons on LGBTQ+ issues and other subjects that conflict with their “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Attorneys and educators predict that implementing the high court ruling in Mahmoud vs. Taylor could prompt confusion and litigation as schools figure out the logistics of handling opt-out requests — including how religious belief claims can or should be verified and how to continue to teach students who are pulled out of classes during the school day.
“There is a lot of trepidation about how to handle this issue in a way that is legally compliant and doesn’t trigger a backlash from one side of the issue or the other,” said Troy Flint, a spokesperson for the California School Boards Assn.
California law requires students learn and be provided instructional materials that explain the “role and contributions” of, among others, “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.” The state-approved social science framework notes that teachers should use age-appropriate materials to discuss and teach about the “the diversity of humankind.”
In most districts, leaders “are hesitant to address this publicly for fear of attracting more scrutiny and making the issue even more difficult to manage,” Flint said.
The Supreme Court decision
In June, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that parents have a right to temporarily pull their children out of classes that offend their religious beliefs, empowering them to object to books or lessons at school. Parents in Montgomery County, Md., had sued over new LGBTQ+ storybooks that were used in kindergarten and other elementary school classes.
Speaking for the conservative majority, Justice Samuel A. Alito said: “A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses a very real threat of undermining the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill.”
Under the ruling, the parents who sued were entitled to a preliminary injunction that would require schools to “notify them in advance” when one of the disputed storybooks would be used in their child’s class. The court did not grant parents a right to change the lessons and books that were used at school.
The court’s three liberals dissented.
“Given the great diversity of religious beliefs in this country, countless interactions that occur every day in public schools might expose children to messages that conflict with a parent’s religious beliefs,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “The result will be chaos for this Nation’s public schools” and “will impose impossible administrative burdens.”
Although the Supreme Court decision was based on parental objections to LGBTQ+ books and lessons, the religious opt-outs could have a broader reach, said Yale Law School professor Justin Driver.
“It is deeply misguided for people to believe that this case is only about LGBTQ+ and equality,” Driver said. “The decision is sweeping,” he said, and could “affect everything from reading to science, to literature to history.”
The California Department of Education has offered online guidance.
It says, in part, that state law promotes “a safe, fair, and welcoming learning environment in all schools. It is important to note that Mahmoud does not invalidate or preempt California’s strong protections for LGBTQ+ youth from discrimination, harassment, and bullying.”
Among the questions educators are addressing:
- Can or should parents file blanket opt-out requests stating they want their child removed from any instruction about LGBTQ+ topics, and leave school personnel to sort it out?
- Should schools ask parents to review reading lists and let parents flag those items to which they object?
- What do teachers do with students whose parents opt them out of a class? Their class time still needs to be used for instruction.
Opting out in California
As school administrators plan their next steps, conservatives are seizing the moment.
Greg Burt of the California Family Council, a Fresno-based Christian group, said the ruling shows that “parents are the ultimate determination of whose values get taught to the child … We’re now in charge of deciding what we think is good and what we think is not good.”
California groups opposed to LGBTQ+-themed teaching materials are generating letters and emails to school districts for parents to use to demand that school leaders proactively remove children from classes where there might be any mention of gay or transgender people, same-sex marriage and other related topics.
A nonprofit Riverside County law firm, Advocates for Faith & Freedom, created one such letter, calling for children to be removed from any teaching involving “gender identity, the use of pronouns inconsistent with biological sex, sexual activity or intercourse of any kind, sexual orientation, or any LGBTQ+ topics” so parents can raise children “in the fear and knowledge of the Lord.”
Lack of a response from the schools “will be considered a denial” that will cause parents to “proceed accordingly.”
Some school officials at smaller districts across the state — including Manteca Unified in San Joaquin County, Turlock Unified in Stanislaus County and Hope Elementary School District in Santa Barbara County — said they have received only a few opt-out notices. Conservative activist Brenda Lebsack, a Santa Ana Unified School District board member, said mass opt-out requests are unlikely to come until school districts notify parents of the new right.
In San Francisco, Mawan Omar, the parent of a sixth-grader, said he intends to opt his son out of LGBTQ+ materials because the teaching contradicts his family’s Muslim faith. Omar said his son, Hezma, objected to a lesson in elementary school because it was contrary to what he had learned from the Quran.
Omar said the ruling is gratifying. “We knew all along we were right.”
What L.A. Unified is doing
The nation’s second-largest school district has prepared a notice letter to parents alerting them of their rights under the Supreme Court ruling.
“If a Parent who, based on religious beliefs, requests in writing to opt their child out of participation in English Language Arts storybooks with LGBTQ+ themes, this request should be honored for the school year in which it was submitted,” Chief Academic Officer Frances Baez wrote in an Aug. 15 memo to elementary principals. “Teachers will provide alternative assignments, similar to what is done for health instruction, with no penalties to the child’s grade.”
In referring to health instruction, Baez was referring to opt-outs that already are available for sexual education.
The notice to parents includes a link to a “list of all classroom library materials the District shares with all elementary schools.” It is apparently up to parents to research and decide which books are objectionable.
Pro-LGBTQ+ parent activist Daisy Gardner finds the entire exercise “infuriating and heartbreaking.”
“The great thing about public school is that you share a space with families who come from all different backgrounds, socioeconomic groups, races and religions,” Gardner said. “It’s an opportunity for kids to broaden their horizons and learn tolerance, which is necessary for a society to function.”
How will opt-outs affect LGBTQ+ students
One unknown is how LGBTQ+ students and students from families with LGBTQ+ members will react when classmates leave and when teaching materials reflecting their lives are presented.
That could make “a child feel they’re not only different, but that they’re not accepted or that they should be ashamed of the family that they have,” said Jorge Reyes Salinas, a spokesperson for Equality California, a civil rights group.
The presidents of California’s two largest teachers unions both said educators will continue presenting approved California lessons and materials.
David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Assn., said that teachers “will obviously follow the law, but we want to make it clear to our members that there are other laws in California around kids’ ability to learn about their own identity, cultures or all kinds of identities. We’re going to still honor kids’ ability to learn about their own identity and all kinds of identities.”
Peele is a staff writer for EdSource, a nonprofit news organization that covers California education issues. Blume is a Times staff writer. EdSource staff writer Emma Gallegos also contributed to this story.
