Replies

Model Hatch Amendment Letter
Under the Hatch Amendment Parents have the right to be assured their children’s beliefs and moral values are not undermined by the schools.

(Address)
(City/State/Zip Code)
Dear______________: I am the parent of________________ who attends ______________ school. Under U.S. legislation and federal court decisions, parents have the primary responsibility for their children’s education, and pupils have certain rights, which the school may not deny.

Parents have the right to be assured their children’s beliefs and moral values are not undermined by the schools. Pupils have the right to have and to hold their values and moral standards without direct or indirect manipulations by the schools through the curricula, textbooks, audio-visual materials or supplementary assignments.

Under the Hatch Amendment, I hereby request that my child NOT be involved in any school activities or materials listed unless I have first reviewed all the relevant materials and have given my written consent for their use:

Psychological and psychiatric treatment that is designed to affect behavioral, emotional, or attitudinal characteristics of an individual or designed to elicit information about attitudes, habits, traits, opinions, beliefs or feelings of an individual or group;?

? Values clarifications, use of moral dilemmas, discussion of religious or moral standards, role-playing or open-ended discussions of situations involving moral issues, and survival games including life/death decision exercises;

? Contrived incidents for self-revelation; sensitivity training, group encounter sessions, talk-ins, magic-circle techniques, self-evaluation and auto-criticism; strategies designed for self-disclosure including the keeping of a diary or a journal or a log book;

? Sociograms, sociodrama; psychodrama; blindfold walks; isolation techniques;
? Death education, including abortion, euthanasia, suicide, use of violence, and discussions of death and dying;

? Curricula pertaining to drugs and alcohol;

? Nuclear war, nuclear policy and nuclear classroom games;

? Globalism, one-world government or anti-nationalistic curricula;

? Discussion and testing on interpersonal relationships; discussions of attitudes toward parents and parenting;

? Educating in human sexuality, including pre-marital sex, contraception, abortion, homosexuality, group sex and marriages, prostitution, incest, bestiality, masturbation, divorce, population control, and roles of males and females; sex behavior and attitudes of student and family;
? Pornography and any materials containing profanity and/or sexual explicitness;

?Guided-fantasy techniques; hypnotic techniques; imagery and suggestology;

? Organic evolution, including Darwin’s theory;

? Discussions of witchcraft, occultism, the supernatural, and mysticism;

?Political and/or religious affiliations of students or family;

? Income of family;

? Non-academic personality tests; questionnaires or personal and family life attitudes.

The purpose of this letter is to preserve my child’s rights under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (The Hatch Amendment) to the General Education Provisions Act, and under its regulations as published in the Federal Register of September 6, 1984, which became effective November 12, 1984.

These regulations provide a procedure for filing complaints first at the local level and then with the U.S. Department of Education. If a voluntary remedy fails, federal funds can be withdrawn from those in violation of the law.

I respectfully ask you to send me a substantive response to this letter attaching a copy of your policy statement on procedures for parental permission requirements, to notify all my child’s teachers, and to keep a copy of this letter in my child’s permanent file.

Thank you for your cooperation. Sincerely,