This is something I just ready today and frankly I'm still having a hard time accepting that it's not fiction--that it is actually happening anywhere in our country right now:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit recently ruled that parents' fundamental rights to control the upbringing of their children "does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door." and that a public school has the right to provide its students with "...whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise."
What?! That is the most arrogant pile of dung I have ever heard. The Circuit Court has lost its mind completely. I honestly wonder if their parents ever had any children that lived. If so, it is obvoius those children (the judges) never had any of their own, or they completely abdicated their responsibilities in raising their own children. Those 9th Circuit judges probably had hot and cold running nannies who took care of "everything" so the judges didn't have to be parents themselves.
That would make sense, wouldn't it? To them,
then, the state's public school systems would just be big state-run
nannies. Why not? It obviously worked for them to assign relinquish
responsibility for the raising of their own children.
The
fallacy of that ruling is that the schools don't have to live with the
consequences of their decisions when it comes to a given child--at
least not like a parent does. Also, the schools are providing a service
and the customers are the children and their parents. To say the
parents don't have a power of choice over what is taught to their child
in the school would be like Congress thinking it works for big
corporations and instead of borrowing its right to exist from citizens
like you and me.
Hmmm...
Seriously, though, this is the final insult to the parents of Florida's children. And it is self-serving, vested-interest backed decisions like this that push parents to find other ways to school their children, like home schooling or low-cost private facilities.
Parents, just because your taxes are what's paying for public schools (and the fool judges on the 9th Appeals Court), doesn't make your money any less important. You're still the customer. If enough parents realized this and "shopped" somewhere else, courts and politicians and school administrations around the state would get the message. Further, the fact that a walk-out of that magnitutude is is not yet happening does not make the message any less true. Your rights as a parent are God-given, no less. The only way you can give them up is if you agree to this madness.
I also find it interesting that the word "sexual" showed up in this ruling. Clearly the Court was defending schools' right to show kids sexual materials whenever they want to. How does that make you feel as a parent--that your public school could whip out any sexual materials they want in front of your child and you have no say over the matter?
I'll save my expletives for another venue, perhaps a rally on the steps of Florida's capital courthouse.
