Ok, so you are the parent of kids in California public schools. Last year your supposedly Republican governor signed SB 777, which added new, superfluous “anti-discrimination” language to already strict laws prohibiting sex discrimination in schools. So, you’re wondering what this means, and you’re a bit worried because California judges can make some pretty wacky decisions sometimes. So, you’re thinking, worst-case, if the schools get really bad you can take your kids out and home-school them.
Wrong.
Some of those same wacky California judges just decided you can’t home-school your kids unless you’re a teacher. Even the LA Times calls the decision “regressive.” In a news story! The Borg have taken over California policy-making. You will be assimilated!
I have posted on this in the past and urged calm. And there is still reason for hope: the California Supreme Court and/or the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn this decision. It’s not time to move out of the state yet.
But if I had children in a California public school I would be very, very worried. As I said in my past post, there is a whole group of “anti-discrimination” activists who want to teach your kids intimate details about homosexual and heterosexual sex acts as early as the sixth grade. They tried to introduce this at my sister’s school in a very liberal part of California, and the administration was forced to back-track after the parents raised a stink.
Here’s the rub: all thinking people are against unfair discrimination. Nobody wants a kid to be beat up because the schoolyard bullies think he is a “fag.” And there are clear, undeniable laws already preventing that in California, and there have been since I was a student there in the 1970s. The new language is unnecessary: it forces courts to bend over backwards to find any possible excuse to treat homosexuality and heterosexuality equally.
So, in theory I could imagine a situation where “hetero-normative” books are prohibited. All books that show a mommy and daddy and kids now must show a mommy and mommy and a daddy and daddy and kids. Can’t you see it is discriminatory to exclude all possible family groups?
The above situation may sound extreme, but the point is that it is the courts and the administrations of the different schools that will determine what “non-discrimination” is. The field is wide open for extreme and crazy decisions. You have to monitor your schools and your kids’ curriculum like a hawk.
This is one of the reasons the home-schooling movement in California has been booming. Parents have decided they simply don’t want to take chances with their kids’ education and are teaching them at home. But this is not acceptable for the politically correct conformist police in California: kids must be taught political correct tripe regardless of what the parents want! We cannot allow independent thought!
Luckily there are very skillful family advocate lawyers who are fighting the politically correct police. The decision is certain to be appealed. In addition, it appears that it will be difficult to enforce the decision and stop home-schooling immediately.
What an unfortunate, outrageous decision. One of the families quoted in the LA Times story said they will leave the state if they cannot home-school. I don’t blame them.