9th Circuit At It Again

UPDATE 11/3 2019hrs

Bookworm has a great post up which also details the letter and survey given to the parents and students…go check it out.

END UPDATE

Sometimes living in Kalifornia just makes you wanna scream:

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge: When parents of schoolchildren in Palmdale, California learned from their sons and daughters that they had been questioned in their public elementary school about sexual topics such as the frequency of ?thinking about having sex? and ?thinking about touching other peoples? private parts,? some of them exercised their constitutional right to take their grievance to the courts. The questioning was part of a survey the Palmdale School District was conducting regarding psychological barriers to learning. The parents brought an action in district court against the School District and two of its officials for violating their right to privacy and their right ?to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex.? They brought both federal and state claims. The district court dismissed the federal causes of action for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted and dismissed the state claims without prejudice to their right to re-file in state court. We agree, and hold that there is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children, either independent of their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed by it. We also hold that parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students. Finally, we hold that the defendants? actions were rationally related to a legitimate state purpose.

[…]In summary, we hold that there is no free-standing fundamental right of parents ?to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex in accordance with their personal and religious values and beliefs? and that the asserted right is not encompassed by any other fundamental right. In doing so, we do not quarrel with the parents? right to inform and advise their children about the subject of sex as they see fit. We conclude only that the parents are possessed of no constitutional right to prevent the public schools from providing information on that subject to their students in any forum or manner they select. We further hold that a psychological survey is a reasonable state action pursuant to legitimate educational as well as health and welfare interests of the state. Accordingly, the parent-appellants have failed to state a federal claim upon which relief may be granted. The decision of the district court is affirmed.

Read the whole thing here in .PDF format.

The only bright spot is that it’s from the 9th Circuit. The bench whose opinions get overturned regularly by the Supreme Court.

According to the ACLU and many on the bench it’s ok to take God out of the pledge, erase Christmas and Easter from the calenders, but it’s ok to teach a child about sex without the Parents consent. What a world we live in.

Curt

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