Parents sue to keep school children from learning about bullying, lgbt families

[ccharles000]

by: Alvin McEwen

I missed this two-week old but very important story:

Angry Parents Suing California Schools Over Mandatory Gay-Friendly Classes

Parents in the Alameda Unified School District were refused the right to excuse their kids from classes that would teach all kids in the district's elementary schools about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender alternative families.

The parents say they are concerned about "indoctrination" in the schools, but administrators say the course is needed to protect against sexual discrimination — and that the lessons are protected by laws in California and 10 other states.

Those states, which stretch from Washington to Maine, will now be eyeing the court results in California in a case that warring sides say pits parents' rights against a schools' responsibilities

Shades of the David Parker incident, but without the histronics of a parent orchestrating a phony moral panic and engaging in lies about his child "being taught about gay sex."

But one wonders if that implication of children "being taught how to be gay" is behind all of these concerns.

As this story continues to be known, this little detail will probably be obscured:

The contested California curriculum includes an annual 45-minute LGBT lesson taught to kids from kindergarten through the fifth grade. The kindergartners will focus on the harms of teasing, while the fifth graders will study sexual orientation stereotypes.

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12974/parents-sue-to-keep-school-children-from-learning-about-bullying-lgbt-families

[Lost-in-FL]

1. Concerned about indoctrination? Time to do some homeskooling. nt

[elleng]

2. More 'teabagger' lessons, totally ignorant, the kind rover 'prays' for.

[madeline_con]

3. Some parents should have their children taken from them, for the children's safety. n/t

[stuball111]

5. I agree...and...

lets bring in a licensing system like for drivers license's or gun permits, whereby you have to go through a psychological evaluation, and if you are found to be racist or unstable in any way, you don't get to have children. Hell, you have to go through all kinds of training and probationary periods to get a drivers license, but any idiot can have children! It would sure lower the population of right wing nuts out there!

[stuball111]

4. It's funny how right wingers have this...

weird filter in their brains that turn something like this into something like "Teaching your kids how to be gay" or "gay sex". And how it even turns into something about sex in the first place! It's about who you want to spend your life with, and that it is just as much a crime to bully or kill gay people as it is anyone else. I say, let these narrow minded parents pull their kids out if they wish, but make them sign a waver, that if any of their little brats so much as lay a hand on any kid, or grow up to be gay-bashing rednecks and wind up killing anybody, that they be charged as an accessory to murder or assault charges if their kids commit any of those crimes.

[musette_sf]

6. must be those d-bags down the street and around the corner from me

who had the Yes On 8 signs on their lawns.

maybe also the idiotic woman with the Stalin/Lenin/Obama bumper sticker on her SUV who i flipped the bird to on Saturday.

they're starting to slither out from under their rocks.

time to put the Equality stickers back in the rear view mirror.

[MadMaddie]

7. Even if the lessons just talked about bullying these nuts are against

it. The want their children to have the right to bully other kids they deem inferior.

They are pathetic excuses for parents.

[TuxedoKat]

8. All states and all schools should be doing these types of classes (nt)

[donco6]

9. Undoubtedly, these are the kids who need it most.

We had a kid last week who was passing out suckers to her friends on the bus. She came to a little African American kid and told him, "I don't like you, we don't like people your color." This was a first grader. It opens your eyes.

[Starry Messenger]

10. Alameda is a strange little place.

It's an island city off the mainland of Oakland. There are liberals there, but it is kind of a conservative enclave otherwise. Still, I'm surprised there was such a outcry about this curriculum. I wonder what is behind this? I would expect the young parents of children to generally be a bit more open-minded around the Bay Area.

[CoffeeCat]

11. We do our own in-home education...

Our children asked us when they were five if boys could marry boys. We said...yes, and that some boys
wanted to marry boys and some girls wanted to marry girls--whereas some boys and girls are attracted to
and marry members of the opposite sex.

When our children were in third grade, they started asking us what "gay" meant, and if it was ok. We
told them that some people are born tall...some have blue eyes...some are gay...some have blonde hair.
Gay...straight--it's just a trait.

We've always taught our children to never make fun of anyone--for what they look like or who they are. We've
gently instilled a sense of responsibility in them about caring for others' feelings and respecting differences
and diversity.

Our children are very sensitive and kind. Last week, one of my children told a friend that it was wrong to make
fun of a little boy that was being ganged up on. She stood up for the boy, told her friend to stop bullying and
that it was wrong.

We're hoping that our anti-bulling and pro-gay rights teachings help them to love and appreciate people--no matter
what their sexual orientation.

As a heterosexual, stay-at-home-mom from the 'burbs--I just want all of the closed-minded, anti-gay, bigoted parents to know that
many of us parents are working to ensure that bullying and other hatred becomes very unpopular and very uncool.

That is all...

[bertman]

14. WOW!! That's more than enough, CoffeeCat. Thank you and your hubby for leading the way.

[Boomerang Diddle]

12. Hate is a family tradition to the Reich. eom

[sakabatou]

13. *facepalm*

[ShadowLiberal]

15. A school around here had a similar uproar for showing kids a video about different kinds of families

A few years ago I saw a story kind of similar to this. A school in New Jersey showed kids in Elementary school a video about different marriages/families there are, like white families, black families, interracial families, and then gay families. It was basically a video about respecting diversity, and showing different kinds of diversity in families, but a lot of parents didn't like it mentioning gay couples and families with 2 moms or 2 dads.