Am I reading this right? The ACLU wants to force these kids to watch this? What kind of civil liberties do they think these kids and their parents have? None? I almost wish they'd try it. My bet is they'd wish they hadn't.
they are indeed trying to force it. One hopes they will not succeed we will see. KY is one state where parents have guts! They may just continue to ignore the ACLU as a nuisense.
If you'll notice, the school wouldn't be showing it AT ALL except for another lawsuit.
In fact, a lot of the stuff some FReepers tend to blame on public schools is actually a result of lawsuits filed by parents and students - remember Michael Newdow and the Pledge of Allegiance?
I think Jay777's post about fighting the ACLU is more appropriate, because in many cases they are forcing this into the public schools against the wishes of the teachers, school boards, students, and parents.
Here's an interesting paragraph from the article about a sex education program in Maryland:
Parents must provide written permission for their child to participate in the week-long sex education program. Abstinence-only classes and an independent study option will be offered as alternatives, according to a spokeswoman for the county public school system.
Those look like good alternatives to me - abstinence only education, or leave sex-education to the parents and let the students study something else entirely that week. I wonder which of the three options will be most used? That will suggest the direction the school will take in the future, I'd bet.
Here's another, that the article seems to try to spin to suggest schools don't mind students cross-dressing:
Meanwhile, a dozen organizations led by the National School Boards Association have issued "practical" guidelines to help school officials deal with legal issues involving students' sexual orientation and gender identity....On a question about cross-dressing, the guide states: "A restriction on boys' wearing dresses to school would be appropriate in communities where such attire on males would result in substantial disruption of the learning process, but in other locales, cross dressing might actually be more socially acceptable and cause minimal disruption in school, making such a restriction less legally justifiable."
In other words, if a school board gets sued in some parts of the country for not letting boys dress like girls, it could probably win. In other places, they'd be wasting taxpayer money to try.
The school system where I grew up included a Bible story and the Lord's Prayer in the morning devotional (along with the Pledge and the Star Spangled Banner) long after they were "supposed" to stop, but they finally had to stop because of a parent lawsuit.