Maryland School Board Proves The Left Prioritizes Agenda Over Education
One major shortcoming of society today is that the baseline of normalcy has vanished. We have all heard the phrase “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” which is a metaphor for something challenging to understand or explain. This phrase suggests a complex and layered conundrum that is hard to unravel; the enigma represents the main mysterious element, the mystery consists of layers of obscurity, and the riddle is the confusing puzzle itself.
The educational process in the United States has become one such metaphor. When considering human development, it becomes clear that the learning process is divided into several interrelated layers, although they remain distinct. Formal learning, which pertains to specific areas of education vital for societal functioning, such as math, science, reading, and related subjects, is often referred to as academic or cognitive skills. These skills are generally taught in formal educational settings, which emphasize acquiring knowledge and comprehending these subjects.
More intimate and personal aspects of education are learned through our experiences with our families. These things are unique in that what we learn is influenced by customs and understanding within our family. For instance, we all have a story about our first girlfriend or boyfriend; they may be similar in specific ways, yet all are unique. Another example might be our first attempt at driving, or our first job, again, similar but unique.
An example of the blending of these layers can be found in the socialization that takes place while we are in these places of academic learning (schools). We are there to learn cognitive subjects such as reading, writing, math, science, etc., but we also learn to socialize with each other in our own way.
However, the left has destroyed the innocence of that socialization. The natural attraction of boy meets girl that should occur spontaneously between the classes of structured learning, after school, and on dates, has been circumvented by the school’s involvement in the indoctrination and promotion of perversion rather than the teaching of baseline subjects.
While other countries have grasped the concept of altering their curriculum to allow the next generation to excel in a technological workplace, the left has caused our educational system to fall behind in even the most basic cornerstone subjects. Instead of demanding more rigid implementation of meaningful and substantive content, Democrats and radicals have campaigned endlessly for LGBTQ indoctrination to even the youngest students against all rational reasoning, and in many cases, surreptitiously, without the parents’ knowledge.
A perfect case in point is what is taking place in Montgomery County, Maryland. There, a high school senior is being denied the opportunity to graduate next month in what amounts to religious discrimination. The student, whom we will identify only as “Jane,” is a senior in Montgomery County Public Schools. Jane has earned a 4.76 weighted GPA and scored 1450 on her SATs, which places her in the 96th percentile of all test takers. Her parents say she is also actively involved in activities at her high school.
Despite her academic excellence, she will not be allowed to graduate because she did not complete a mandatory LGBTQ component of her health class. Her parents argue that the course includes content that is “LGBTQ affirming” and “religiously discriminatory,” which they find objectionable due to their Christian faith.
The family told Fox News Digital they have been involved in a prolonged struggle with the school district for over two years. They have been trying to have their daughter exempted from the course or, as an alternative, to allow her to take a class at a private school or complete independent study to fulfill the requirement. Their requests have been denied.
The parents have petitioned the Maryland Supreme Court for an expedited review of their civil case against the Montgomery County Board of Education.
According to her father:
“She’s pretty distraught about not being able to graduate with all her friends and experience the rite of passage.”
The saga began in August 2022 when the parents discovered that their daughter was enrolled in a health class for her sophomore year that was required for graduation. Upon learning about the LGBTQ content included in the year-long course titled “Family Life and Human Sexuality,” they requested that she opt out of the course based on their deeply held religious beliefs.
Screenshots of teacher training documents shared with Fox News Digital by parents ask teachers to “review LGBTQ resources to incorporate more inclusive language” throughout the entire course.
The guide contains numerous leftist talking points, including a list of “privileged” and “oppressed” groups of people, categorizing Christians as “privileged” and “Non-Abrahamic Religions/Spiritualities” as oppressed. The lesson further asks teachers to identify specific groups affected by health inequities, including transgender or gender-expansive individuals, LGBTQ individuals, and those who identify as non-Christians.
Further, another document called “Worship of the Written Words” instructs teachers to recognize “White supremacy culture” in the classroom and at home.
In their petition to the Maryland Supreme Court, the plaintiffs state that they pulled their daughter from the class while seeking additional information about the curriculum. The school district refused their requests to view lesson plans or opt their daughter out of the class, which clearly gave the appearance that the district was trying to hide something.
The parents suggested that “Jane” take the health class at a local, accredited Catholic high school or through independent study under the supervision of a former teacher in the MCPS system with a health education background.
The district refused these very reasonable accommodations, mandating that “Jane” be taught by a current district teacher or fulfill the requirement through dual enrollment in a community college course. The parents said that was not an option due to a conflict with “Jane’s” high school class schedule. Further, it wouldn’t have shielded her from the pro-LGBTQ curriculum to which they were objecting.
After the district denied their request, the parents appealed to the Circuit Court of Montgomery County last August. The court upheld the district’s decision, and the parents appealed to the Appellate Court in January.
However, due to the time-sensitive nature of their request, they asked for an expedited hearing, or a writ of certiorari to the Maryland Supreme Court, while their appeal waits in the Appellate Court.
The parents believe it was wrong for the district to put pro-LGBTQ content throughout the entire health course, claiming that it was:
“Restricted by law to the Family Life and Human Sexuality (FLHS) unit of the Health class, with parents having a regulatory right to opt out their child from that unit.”
In a letter to the Maryland State Board of Education on March 7, “Jane’s” parents wrote:
“We are not trying to get MCPS to stop teaching about LGBTQ+ or change its curriculum. We are trying to get MCPS to keep that teaching restricted to the Family LIfe and Human Sexuality part of the curriculum so we can get notice of it and opt-out our daughter, or if MCPS is allowed to spread LGBTQ+ instruction throughout the entire health class, as its teacher instruction materials say it is doing, it follows that MCPS should allow us to opt-out our daughter from the entire class. We are trying to get MCPS to refrain from discriminating against religion.”
Although it would be easy to transfer “Jane” out of the district, they have decided to keep her there to fight for all religious students in the district whose First Amendment rights are being violated. Likewise, not all parents can afford the costs, transportation, and time to attend private or home school.
The parents have also filed a separate complaint under FOIA, where the district refused to provide class documents, accusing it of “knowingly and wilfully” withholding public information, violating Maryland public records laws.
Fox News Digital contacted the Montgomery County Board of Education, the Maryland State Department of Education, and Montgomery County Public Schools for comment. However, all declined to comment on pending litigation.
The county is already facing litigation in a high-profile religious liberty case before the United States Supreme Court.
That case involves the school board removing an opt-out for parents challenging LGBTQ books in the classroom.
That suit was brought by a coalition of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim parents of school-age children, alleging the board is violating their religious freedoms protected under the First Amendment by forcing their young children to participate in instruction contrary to their closely held religious beliefs. Oral arguments in that case were held last week in a case that could set a precedent for parents’ rights in schools nationwide.
As a parent of two children, I would be furious if either of my kids were being denied graduation privileges just because they refused to attend a class that contained mandatory LGBTQ curriculum. If they had worked so hard to earn a 4.76 GPA and scored 1450 on their SATs, I would probably have set up camp in the district office.
What this proves without the shadow of a doubt is that education in Montgomery County, Maryland, is secondary to fulfilling a prejudiced and unfair radical leftist agenda. This young woman worked incredibly hard and yet is being punished by narrow-minded bureaucrats who hate normalcy and civility.
Everyone involved in this charade should be fired, the school curriculum should be destroyed in a bonfire, and then totally rewritten. Maybe “Jane” can even help out; she’s obviously brighter than those who wrote the current jaded garbage.
