Free Republic

A federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by parents who wanted to keep their young children from learning about same-sex marriage in school. The judge, Mark L. Wolf of Federal District Court, said the courts had decided in other cases that parents’ rights to exercise their religious beliefs were not violated when their children were exposed to contrary ideas in school. Schools are “entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens,” Judge Wolf said. The parents who filed the lawsuit, Tonia and David Parker of Lexington, sued...

Lawyers representing a Massachusetts school district named as a defendant in a parent's civil rights complaint have said teachers at Estabrook Elementary School have a "legitimate state interest" in teaching the homosexual lifestyle, and parents have no input into those decisions.... ...."The state must fight 'discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation' in ways that 'do not perpetuate stereotypes,'" the lawyers for the school district argued. They also explained to the judge that, in their opinion, parents have no right to control what ideas the school presents to elementary schoolchildren, and if parents disagree with that dictate, they can take...

A health teacher made 8th graders read aloud explicit questions about oral sex and masturbation during a sex-education lesson at a suburban school this week, outraging parents who demanded the teacher be disciplined. The principal at Wolcott School in Thornton said he learned of the lesson early Friday after numerous phone calls from parents and directed the health teacher to apologize to his class for the two-day lesson. Parents say this apology isn't enough. They plan to attend the Thornton School District board meeting next week to demand that the 27-year-old teacher, Scott Groff, be suspended or fired. "My daughter...

Poland's Giertych wants to ban gay groups from schools Mar 13, 2007, 13:27 GMT Warsaw - Roman Giertych, Poland's controversial Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, is preparing legislation to sanction school principals who allow members of gay rights organisations to speak with pupils, a Polish education ministry spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Giertych recently stirred controversy in Heidelberg, Germany, during a meeting of EU education ministers when he openly criticized abortion rights and what he termed 'homosexual propaganda'. The government of conservative Law and Justice (PIS) Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has distanced itself from the Giertych's comments, insisting they were...

Officials at Deerfield High School in Deerfield, Ill., have ordered their 14-year-old freshman class into a "gay" indoctrination seminar, after having them sign a confidentiality agreement promising not to tell their parents. "This is unbelievable," said Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues for Concerned Women for America. "It's not enough that students at Deerfield High are being exposed to improper and offensive material relative to unhealthy and high-risk homosexual behavior, but they've essentially been told by teachers to lie to their parents about it."