Attorneys with a legal defense group in California say they will defend the rights of parents to opt out of a controversial curriculum for their children.
Kevin Snider with the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) said the newly approved pro-gay curriculum should be a choice - not a mandate - for parents of elementary school children.
San Francisco Bay-area Alameda Unified School District has approved a "lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender" (LGBT) curriculum for use with kindergarten through fifth-grade students.
The curriculum is intended to address bullying and harassment. Despite the objection of 73 percent of the speakers from the community who attended the board meeting when the curriculum was up for a approval, the board passed it anyway.
"The fundamental problem with the curriculum is it gives a monopoly to one segment of the population -- namely gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender persons -- on the issue of harassment," Snider told the San Francisco Chronicle. "And our position is that all students deserve safe schools, and that sexual orientation is only one of six protected classes. The other classes include race, gender, religion, disability, etc.; and so we have opposed this."
Alameda Unified School District has not allowed parents to opt their children out of the curriculum. PJI is sending opt-out letters to the district on behalf of parents. If the district rejects those letters, Snider says PJI will take the issue to court.