Thursday, November 03, 2005

9th Circuit rules for schools, against parents

Hey there, Mr. and Mrs. MattsapunditReader and Parent of Impressionable Children! Would you have a problem if an agent of local government mandated that your first-grader take a psychological quiz to find out about his sexual activities? Tough! The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued its latest in a long series of disturbing rulings, saying that parents have no right to keep public schools from discussing masturbation with six-year-olds:
Parents' rights were not violated when a Southern California elementary school conducted a psychological survey of their children and asked them about sexual feelings and masturbation, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
"Parents have a right to inform their children when and as they wish on the subject of sex,'' said Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the 3-0 ruling. "They have no constitutional right, however, to prevent a public school from providing its students with whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise.''
I'll leave it to LST's resident legal eagles to dissect the legal ramifications of this case, but it doesn't look good. The list of Catholic schools' advantages over government schools gets longer and longer every day. [Hat-tip: The Everlasting Phelps]

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