Dive Brief:
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Muslim, Jewish and Christian parents suing Maryland's Montgomery County Board of Education for the ability to opt their children out of elementary school LGBTQ+ lessons were denied Wednesday by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision upholds a lower district court's decision to deny the parents a preliminary injunction.
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In the 2-1 opinion, Judges G. Steven Agee and DeAndrea Gist Benjamin said that parents had not provided enough evidence to show that the school district likely violated their free-exercise or due process rights. However, dissenting judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum said parents are likely to succeed in proving that the board's decision to deny religious opt-outs for their children burdens their rights to freely exercise religion.
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Judges Agee and Benjamin left open the possibility that even though parents did not make a strong enough argument for a preliminary injunction, they may still be able to prove in court "that an elementary-age child’s exposure to the Storybooks and related conversations amounts to coercion."
Dive Insight:
The case brings into question schools' longstanding practice of opt-outs, which have often been afforded to parents for issues like sex education or high-stakes testing. While curriculum regulations in states nationwide seek to prevent entire grades of students from accessing LGBTQ+ materials, opt-outs would allow parents to tailor their individual child's curriculum by replacing materials they find objectionable with alternatives.
This option was originally afforded to Montgomery County parents when the district expanded its language arts curriculum in 2023 to include LGBTQ+ issues.
However, the district reversed that decision and claimed it led to high student absenteeism, and it said principals and teachers were unsure if they could accommodate "the growing number of opt out requests without causing significant disruptions to the classroom environment and undermining [the school system’s] educational mission,” per Wednesday's court documents.
The district also claimed in the past that many opt-out requests it received were not religious in nature.
“Some parents, for instance, opposed what they believed was an effort to teach students about sex, to teach students lessons about LGBTQ issues, or to use instructional materials that were not age-appropriate,” attorneys for the Montgomery County Board of Education wrote in its July 2023 response to the plaintiffs' lawsuit. “In some instances, individual teachers and principals sought to accommodate these requests by allowing students to be excused when the books were read in class.”
However, parents claimed their inability to opt out of the elementary school curriculum violated the First and 14th Amendments, including their right to determine the religious upbringing of their children.
But a majority of the judges on Wednesday said parents could not show "direct or indirect coercion arising out of the exposure" to the LGBTQ+ books.
"As an initial matter, there’s no evidence at present that the Board’s decision not to permit opt-outs compels the Parents or their children to change their religious beliefs or conduct, either at school or elsewhere," Judge Agee wrote for the majority. "They do not show anything at this point about the Board’s decision that affects what they teach their own children."
However, the two majority judges said they understand parents' concerns that the books "could be used in ways that would confuse or mislead children" and "could be used to indoctrinate their children into espousing views that are contrary to their religious faith."
Their decision upholds that of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, which had originally ruled against the parents last August and triggered the 4th Circuit appeal.
Eric Baxter, lawyer for the parents and senior counsel at Becket Law, said in a statement to K-12 Dive he plans to appeal the 4th Circuit's decision. “The court just told thousands of Maryland parents they have no say in what their children are taught in public schools," said Baxter. "Parents should have the right to receive notice and opt their children out of classroom material that violates their faith."
Montgomery County Public Schools didn't respond to K-12 Dive's request for comment.
