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Do Parents Have Rights?Most parents of public school students probably assume they have certain rights, even if those rights are not always honored. They may not realize that the courts have addressed this issue a number of times and have concluded that once parents deliver their children to the front door of a public school, the parents and the children both forfeit many rights they'd normally have. Consider this excerpt from the Nov. 2, 2005 opinion of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (and note that it confirms the opinion of another court). The Ninth Circuit case was specifically addressing interviews conducted with children in a California school in which first, third, and fifth graders were asked explicit sexual questions as well as other disturbing and intrusive questions. The parents who sued lost their case. Excerpt: [O]nce parents make the choice as to which school their children will attend, ...their fundamental right to control the education of their children is, at the least, substantially diminished. The constitution does not vest parents with the authority to interfere with a public school’s decision as to how it will provide information to its students or what information it will provide, in its classrooms or otherwise. See Yoder, 406 U.S. at 205. Perhaps the Sixth Circuit said it best when it explained,
The situation has drawn the attention and action of thousands of homeschoolers, California state education officials, the governor of California, and news sources across the country. It should be stressed that California law has not changed. While this particular judgment does open the door to interpret future cases with similar harshness, it will take some time before the actual implications of this case for average homeschoolers may be fully realized. The most important thing to do is stay informed and not make any decisions in a panic.
Is There a Problem? |
Some of the more
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