on June 27, 2025, 14:16:59, in reply to "Oh, that's right. This case originated from your neck of the woods.*"
In the orals, he did not like this when it came up regarding instruction in grades K-5:
The Board also contemplated that instruction involving the “LGBTQ+-inclusive” storybooks would include classroom discussion. See id., at 642a (Board’s lawyer: “there will be discussion that ensues. In fact, I think everyone would hope that discussion ensues”). In anticipation of such discussion, the Board hosted a “professional development workshop” in the summer of 2022, where it provided teachers with a guidance document suggesting how they might respond to student inquiries regarding the themes presented in the books.
For example, if a student asserts that two men cannot get married, the guidance document encouraged teachers to respond by saying: “When people are adults they can get married. Two men who love each other can decide they want to get married.” If a student claims that a character “can’t be a boy if he was born a girl,” teachers were encouraged to respond: “That comment is hurtful.” And if a student asks “[w]hat’s transgender?”, it was recommended that teachers explain: “When we’re born, people make a guess about our gender and label us ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ based on our body parts. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong.” The guidance document encouraged teachers to “[d]isrupt the either/or thinking” of their students.
At the same workshop, the Board also provided teachers with a guidance document that suggested particular responses to inquiries by parents. For example, if a parent were to ask whether the school was attempting to teach a child to “reject” the values taught at home, teachers were encouraged to respond that “[t]eaching about LGBTQ+ is not about making students think a certain way; it is to show that there is no one ‘right’ or ‘normal’ way to be.” The guidance also urged teachers to assure parents that there would not be “explicit instruction” about gender and sexual identity, but that “there may be a need to define words that are new and unfamiliar to students,” and that “questions and conversations might organically happen.”
If parents were not comforted by that information, teachers could tell them that “[p]arents always have the choice to keep their student(s) home while using these texts; however, it will not be an excused absence.”
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Message Thread SCOTUS smacked my local school district over opt-outs and transgender materials - Potomac June 27, 2025, 13:37:02
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