Activist Blasts Bay State Officials' Anti-Parental Notification Argument
by Jim Brown
August 29, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Massachusetts pro-family activist, who is also one of the co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought against city and school officials in Lexington, is denouncing the defendants for trying to make a legal argument that the state has a "legitimate interest" in promoting homosexuality to elementary students.
In late April, David and Tonia Parker and Rob and Robin Wirthlin filed a federal civil rights suit against the town of Lexington and its public school officials over their refusal to notify parents before holding classroom discussions with students regarding homosexuality and same-sex "marriage." The defendants have since filed a 57-page motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The Lexington officials named in the suit claim they are not denigrating the moral beliefs of the Parkers and the Wirthlins but are rather "acknowledging and celebrating" diverse backgrounds and families. But Massachusetts pro-family activist Brian Camenker, who heads the conservative group Article 8 Alliance, feels the defendants are attempting to twist legal precedent to rob Lexington parents and children of their rights.
"It's every parent's nightmare," Camenker observes. "They are trying to make a legal claim that teaching homosexuality to even the youngest of kids without their parents' knowledge or consent is not only legal," he says, "but that it is also mandated and they are ordered to do it by various laws."
The Article 8 Alliance spokesman describes the defendants' legal argument as an Orwellian bad dream, where the Lexington town and school officials are alleging government authority for and endorsement of their promotion of homosexuality to school children. "They're claiming," he asserts, "that because of gay 'marriage' -- and I use the word in quotes -- in Massachusetts, that the state has this legitimate interest in doing this, and that the parental notification laws of Massachusetts don't apply."
Under those state parental notification laws, Massachusetts schools are required to adopt policies ensuring that parents and guardians are notified about any school curriculum "that primarily involves human sexual education or human sexuality issues" and must permit parents to exempt their children from any part of such curriculum without penalty. The schools are also required to make instructional materials for such curricula "reasonably accessible" to parents, guardians, and others for inspection and review.
Camenker says the Lexington government and school officials are claiming the parental notification laws do not apply in the case of the schools' diversity training curriculum because, according to them, "it's not about human sexuality issues; it's now about human rights issues." He, like the co-plaintiffs who jointly filed the civil rights lawsuit, disagrees.
The Parkers and the Wirthlins have until September 5 to file a rebuttal. The presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf, whom Camenker describes as "middle-of-the-road to slightly conservative," is expected to rule on the motion to dismiss by the middle of September.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
