Utah Schools Protect Parental Rights

Special Report - June 27, 2012
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is supporting a Utah school district’s decision to require parental consent before children can check out library books that deal with human sexuality. ADF sent a letter to the superintendent of the Davis School District after the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah sent a letter to the District expressing “its grave constitutional and statutory concerns” resulting from the policy. The ACLU is also seeking various records related to the decision and other related library policies.

The controversy arose when a kindergartener brought home the homosexual advocacy book “In Our Mother’s House” from his elementary school library. As a result, 25 parents signed a petition to the school district “objecting to the book’s accessibility to children without parental consent,” according to an ADF press release. Now, parents must sign a permission slip before a student can check out the book from a school library.

“Parents have the ‘fundamental right’ to ‘direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.’ The District is right to leave such decisions to them,” ADF states in its letter. “It is ‘established beyond debate’ that ‘parents have the primary role … in the upbringing of their children.’”

“Public schools should not surrender to ACLU intimidation when it asks them to expose children to sexual content without parental knowledge,” said ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco in a June 26 press release. “Parents, not the ACLU, should decide whether young children have access to this type of propaganda, which is obviously aimed at re-educating children regarding the nature of the family. The law clearly upholds the right and duty of schools to protect children and respect the role of their parents.”

Related resources:
Beware of Banned Books Week - October 1, 2009
The "Right" to Read - FNC - Nov/Dec 2008
Elementary School Protects Children From Homosexual Book - March 29, 2004
Parents Object to Pro Homosexual "Marriage" Book - March 18, 2004

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