9th Circuit Does it Again
RedState contributor Erick highlights yet another distressing decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In Fields v. Palmdale School Dist., a three judge panel unanimously held that parents do not have a fundamental constitutional right to serve as
the exclusive provider of information regarding the sexual matters to their children, either independent of their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed by it. (court’s emphasis)
What prompted such a ruling? Well, a graduate student convinced an elementary school to give out a questionaire to kids regarding their mental health. A disclosure and permission letter was sent to parents, but that letter omitted any reference to questions of a sexual nature. For example Question #22 asked students ages 7 to 10 to rate how often they are “Thinking about touching other people’s parts” and Question #47 “Can’t stop thinking about sex.” Disgusting.
The school’s decision to blindside the parents bothers me more than the 9th Circuit decision. I would agree that parents do not have a constitutional fundamental right to direct what their children learn inside the school. Prudentially, that would clog the courts with lawsuits and frankly, the local level is where parents need to attack the rampant liberalism that pervades the public schools. Moreover, such a right would only be found using in the made-up jurisprudence called substantive due process, which is not in the Constitution.
However, I am bothered by this statement by Judge Reinhardt regarding education’s purpose:
[E]ducation is not merely about teaching the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Education serves higher civic and social functions, including the rearing of children into healthy, productive, and responsible adults and the cultivation of talented and qualified leaders of diverse backgrounds.
What? Isn’t education about teachers teaching and students learning about english, American history, and mathematics? Note how Judge Reinhardt kidnaps children from their parents and grants schools the parental responsibility of child rearing. Reinhardt’s revisionist definition permits a school to teach whatever they want because they are raising the children, not the parents. A little quiz on mental health lumped with sexual references is no exception.
Fields illustrates what liberals think schools are designed to accomplish and why the public education system seems more and more an indoctrinating day-time prison instead of an place where “reading, writing, and arithmetic” are taught.
UPDATE: More 9th Circuit reaction at Raging Right Wing Republican and Independent Conservative.
November 4th, 2005 at 11:08 am
Remember, a famous person once said “It takes a village…”