Chez Chesler

Parents may sue school over gay book- from Pink News- all the latest gay news from the gay community - Pink News

The book, “King & King,” where a prince marries a fellow prince instead of a princess, was used in a lesson teaching different types of weddings. Lexington Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash said the school has no legal obligation to tell parents about the book, ''We couldn't run a public school system if every parent who feels some topic is objectionable to them for moral or religious reasons decides their child should be removed. ''Lexington is committed to teaching children about the world they live in, and in Massachusetts same-sex marriage is legal."

In Massachusetts it is also a legal requirement that parents be notified of sex ed. Ash appears to be picking and choosing which laws to hide behind. MGL Chapter 71, section 32A states

Every city, town, regional school district or vocational school district implementing or maintaining curriculum which primarily involves human sexual education or human sexuality issues shall adopt a policy ensuring parental/guardian notification. Such policy shall afford parents or guardians the flexibility to exempt their children from any portion of said curriculum through written notification to the school principal. No child so exempted shall be penalized by reason of such exemption.

Besides the poor grammar (curriculum is singular) it's not clear what the law actually requires. If Ash is going to claim that "King and King" is not part of a curriculum that primarily involves human sexuality, any school can get around this law by combining 51% calculus with 49% sex ed. The simplest reading of that section means that every parent who feels some sex topic is objectionable to them for any reason at all may remove their child; and all parents already have the right to remove their children from the public schools, though that's the only way they're going to get the education their taxes suppport. Is Ash suggesting that if gay marriage were illegal he wouldn't teach it in his school? Somebody should point out to him that being king is illegal in Massachusetts (US Constitution, Article I, section 9, "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States"), and I'm not aware that fornication and adultery laws have been explicitly overturned here, but I doubt Ash supports "abstinence until marriage" sex ed.