Ruling on MCPS LGBT curriculum case coming this morning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an MCPS elementary school teacher and I have used Uncle Bobby's Wedding and Prince and Knight in my classroom to teach grade level literacy standards. We used these texts to sequence plot events, describe characters, and to compare with other stories. No teacher that I know uses these texts to teach about different family structures.

We have had units in our curriculum that provide read alouds featuring only white characters. I have substituted those texts as well, to show more diversity. (A version of Hansel and Gretel that takes place in Africa, Jack and the Beanstalk with a female heroine, Rapunzel with a Chinese main character, a folktale from Pakistan with a protagonist in a hijab, etc.)

If parents object to their children being exposed to stories, that makes me sad. The two-parent, hetero-normative life experience is NOT the experience of every family, and every child deserves to see themselves represented in the literature they read at school.

I’ve never once seen any part of our family represented in the elementary books read. I even got an email telling me to ask my child not to talk about things happening to them as it made the staff and kids uncomfortable. Every child does deserve to be represented but they aren’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes the best way to normalize things is to *not* make such a big deal about it.

Like others have said, it’s 2025. Everyone on the planet can rattle off a long list of beloved gay celebs and many know a gay person IRL. Our state embraces gay marriage.

The fact that kids feel comfortable enough identifying as LGBTQ or non-binary or even as a furry demonstrates that our MoCo community is in fact a safe place.

So why drill down sooooo hard in the schools?

It’s not necessary…particularly at the K-5 level.

As a Gen X’er, I was raised in MoCo to embrace and celebrate diversity…and it seemed to work. My Gen X friends and coworkers have diverse friends groups and a “live and let live” mentality. It wasn’t until the post-George Floyd era that race and then gender identity became some bizarre tribal thing where everyone decamped into strictly defined—and let’s face it, self-segregated—groups followed by a hard push to drill down on special interest everything…including curricula.

Enough already.

Embrace and celebrity diversity. Easy peasy. But please focus on academics, civics, and just treating everyone with the same respect you would expect.

+1 I completely agree!

How do you embrace and celebrate diversity if we’re not allowed to read or discuss it in class? How do you discuss Civics without discussing the history that led to laws and practices being created or removed? How do you get kids to have respect for something without ever explaining it.

For example, a girl wears a hijab but some kid calls her weird and suggest she take it off. We tell the 2nd kid that’s not nice, but never explain to them that the girl and many others view it as an important part of their faith? But then when someone else comes along and starts screaming that they shouldn’t be allowed to wear hijabs, or that a young man can’t wear a Keffiyeh to graduation, then what? Will that 2nd kid have tolerance or will they return to, it’s weird and so it shouldn’t be allowed.? Meanwhile others will be allowed to wear a cross around their neck.

Mcps is ok with girls being bullied for a hijab. They are also ok with Swasticas everywhere. They will make a quick statement and that’s it.

MCPS does the same for kids being bullied for being trans or gay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow! I can’t believe any school system would be so bold to challenge parental rights like this. It’s disgusting behavior and says much about the people you entrust with your children! Very disturbing. Glad you won!

All you won was days off of school.

Nice try, but no.

The students who are opted out due to this ruling have to be treated exactly the same as students who opt out due to other issues allowed by MCPS. Otherwise, MCPS will see another lawsuit, and one with punitive damages to boot.

but to avoid resource problems they should probably be grouped in a separate class, so they can just do their alternative prayer there, and not disrupt the curricula.

they don't want to be treated exactly the same.

Racism at its best. Separate but allegedly equal.

all of the Muslim kids wouldn't be in the class, just the ones opting out. Ergo...not separated on the basis of a specific religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an MCPS elementary school teacher and I have used Uncle Bobby's Wedding and Prince and Knight in my classroom to teach grade level literacy standards. We used these texts to sequence plot events, describe characters, and to compare with other stories. No teacher that I know uses these texts to teach about different family structures.

We have had units in our curriculum that provide read alouds featuring only white characters. I have substituted those texts as well, to show more diversity. (A version of Hansel and Gretel that takes place in Africa, Jack and the Beanstalk with a female heroine, Rapunzel with a Chinese main character, a folktale from Pakistan with a protagonist in a hijab, etc.)

If parents object to their children being exposed to stories, that makes me sad. The two-parent, hetero-normative life experience is NOT the experience of every family, and every child deserves to see themselves represented in the literature they read at school.

I’ve never once seen any part of our family represented in the elementary books read. I even got an email telling me to ask my child not to talk about things happening to them as it made the staff and kids uncomfortable. Every child does deserve to be represented but they aren’t.

What was happening to your child?

[Anonymous]

Activists have destroyed our education system. Solution is not to go after MCPS, but to go after individual staff and admins. Unless there is some cost, this non-sense will continue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Activists have destroyed our education system. Solution is not to go after MCPS, but to go after individual staff and admins. Unless there is some cost, this non-sense will continue.

ok psychopath

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Nope . You can’t have 1 class where you have total opt out and guess what the scotus agrees. The books stay the kids stay home with their parents.

Would you also like a class where there are no black characters?

Staying home would be another solution, I agree. But if they have to be in school then they need to be in easily removed sections to facilitate the school functioning and to not place further burdens on teachers.

The rolling was that would be too much of a burden on a large school system and then it’s up to the parents to keep their kids out of the class. It’s only the responsibility of the teacher administration to let the parents know what books are being read.

Are you telling me that your religion is too much of a burden?

I'm wondering if you've even read the ruling, as it says nothing like that at all.

But if not for the fact that it would pull more money from the schools in wasted legal fees, I would LOVE to see MCPS try it, just for the entertainment value of seeing them smacked down again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The rolling was that would be too much of a burden on a large school system and then it’s up to the parents to keep their kids out of the class. It’s only the responsibility of the teacher administration to let the parents know what books are being read.

Are you telling me that your religion is too much of a burden?

I'm wondering if you've even read the ruling, as it says nothing like that at all.

If not for the fact that it would pull more money from the schools in wasted legal fees, I would LOVE to see MCPS try it, just for the entertainment value of seeing them smacked down again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes the best way to normalize things is to *not* make such a big deal about it.

Like others have said, it’s 2025. Everyone on the planet can rattle off a long list of beloved gay celebs and many know a gay person IRL. Our state embraces gay marriage.

The fact that kids feel comfortable enough identifying as LGBTQ or non-binary or even as a furry demonstrates that our MoCo community is in fact a safe place.

So why drill down sooooo hard in the schools?

It’s not necessary…particularly at the K-5 level.

As a Gen X’er, I was raised in MoCo to embrace and celebrate diversity…and it seemed to work. My Gen X friends and coworkers have diverse friends groups and a “live and let live” mentality. It wasn’t until the post-George Floyd era that race and then gender identity became some bizarre tribal thing where everyone decamped into strictly defined—and let’s face it, self-segregated—groups followed by a hard push to drill down on special interest everything…including curricula.

Enough already.

Embrace and celebrity diversity. Easy peasy. But please focus on academics, civics, and just treating everyone with the same respect you would expect.

+1 I completely agree!

How do you embrace and celebrate diversity if we’re not allowed to read or discuss it in class? How do you discuss Civics without discussing the history that led to laws and practices being created or removed? How do you get kids to have respect for something without ever explaining it.

For example, a girl wears a hijab but some kid calls her weird and suggest she take it off. We tell the 2nd kid that’s not nice, but never explain to them that the girl and many others view it as an important part of their faith? But then when someone else comes along and starts screaming that they shouldn’t be allowed to wear hijabs, or that a young man can’t wear a Keffiyeh to graduation, then what? Will that 2nd kid have tolerance or will they return to, it’s weird and so it shouldn’t be allowed.? Meanwhile others will be allowed to wear a cross around their neck.

Mcps is ok with girls being bullied for a hijab. They are also ok with Swasticas everywhere. They will make a quick statement and that’s it.

MCPS does the same for kids being bullied for being trans or gay.

There is a bit more support and tons of lessons. There are few lessons on Muslin, Jewish or other cultures and lifestyles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The rolling was that would be too much of a burden on a large school system and then it’s up to the parents to keep their kids out of the class. It’s only the responsibility of the teacher administration to let the parents know what books are being read.

Are you telling me that your religion is too much of a burden?

I'm wondering if you've even read the ruling, as it says nothing like that at all.

If not for the fact that it would pull more money from the schools in wasted legal fees, I would LOVE to see MCPS try it, just for the entertainment value of seeing them smacked down again.

How much did MCPS spend fighting this and other issues like special needs this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious why the Jewish and Muslim families who supported this opt out do not see how this opens the way for parents to push for opting out of having kids read story books with Jewish or Muslim characters on the basis of the religious burden that including these characters might do to Christian kids. Christian parents can argue that seeing these characters at a young age could be burdensome to their religious beliefs and that they want to introduce their kids to the existence of these types of beliefs when they are older. I think people forget that respecting diversity that includes your beliefs also means respecting diversity that does not. Anyways, I get why male, straight, Christian conservative white nationalists would celebrate this ruling. I disagree, but it makes sense. For anyone not part of this group, I do not understand.

The plaintiffs were Muslim, Catholic, and Ukrainian Orthodox (not to say Orthodox Jews would necessarily approve of all these books either but almost none of them send their kids to public school in the first place). I'm not convinced most of the people on this thread have actually read the decision - people keep talking as if the case was decided when this was a preliminary injunction, getting random facts of the case wrong, etc so I'm just going to post the link again: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-297_4f14.pdf

I did read it and what it shows it the extraordinarily sensitive sensibilities of those who are protesting these books. It truly opens up a very bad precedent which would have consequences for teaching things like evolution or even showing women in pants in books.

I'm not trying to be pedantic but this ruling was about whether MCPS has to keep the preexisting opt-out in place while this case is litigated - until the case is over we don't know exactly what the precedent will be - I agree it potentially could be a very bad precedent but we don't know yet. I don't think the injunction itself is that bad tbh - cases can take a long time, the kids in question could literally graduate by then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an MCPS elementary school teacher and I have used Uncle Bobby's Wedding and Prince and Knight in my classroom to teach grade level literacy standards. We used these texts to sequence plot events, describe characters, and to compare with other stories. No teacher that I know uses these texts to teach about different family structures.

We have had units in our curriculum that provide read alouds featuring only white characters. I have substituted those texts as well, to show more diversity. (A version of Hansel and Gretel that takes place in Africa, Jack and the Beanstalk with a female heroine, Rapunzel with a Chinese main character, a folktale from Pakistan with a protagonist in a hijab, etc.)

If parents object to their children being exposed to stories, that makes me sad. The two-parent, hetero-normative life experience is NOT the experience of every family, and every child deserves to see themselves represented in the literature they read at school.

I’ve never once seen any part of our family represented in the elementary books read. I even got an email telling me to ask my child not to talk about things happening to them as it made the staff and kids uncomfortable. Every child does deserve to be represented but they aren’t.

What was happening to your child?

Not the point but many kids have different family situations and they addressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes the best way to normalize things is to *not* make such a big deal about it.

Like others have said, it’s 2025. Everyone on the planet can rattle off a long list of beloved gay celebs and many know a gay person IRL. Our state embraces gay marriage.

The fact that kids feel comfortable enough identifying as LGBTQ or non-binary or even as a furry demonstrates that our MoCo community is in fact a safe place.

So why drill down sooooo hard in the schools?

It’s not necessary…particularly at the K-5 level.

As a Gen X’er, I was raised in MoCo to embrace and celebrate diversity…and it seemed to work. My Gen X friends and coworkers have diverse friends groups and a “live and let live” mentality. It wasn’t until the post-George Floyd era that race and then gender identity became some bizarre tribal thing where everyone decamped into strictly defined—and let’s face it, self-segregated—groups followed by a hard push to drill down on special interest everything…including curricula.

Enough already.

Embrace and celebrity diversity. Easy peasy. But please focus on academics, civics, and just treating everyone with the same respect you would expect.

+1 I completely agree!

How do you embrace and celebrate diversity if we’re not allowed to read or discuss it in class? How do you discuss Civics without discussing the history that led to laws and practices being created or removed? How do you get kids to have respect for something without ever explaining it.

For example, a girl wears a hijab but some kid calls her weird and suggest she take it off. We tell the 2nd kid that’s not nice, but never explain to them that the girl and many others view it as an important part of their faith? But then when someone else comes along and starts screaming that they shouldn’t be allowed to wear hijabs, or that a young man can’t wear a Keffiyeh to graduation, then what? Will that 2nd kid have tolerance or will they return to, it’s weird and so it shouldn’t be allowed.? Meanwhile others will be allowed to wear a cross around their neck.

Mcps is ok with girls being bullied for a hijab. They are also ok with Swasticas everywhere. They will make a quick statement and that’s it.

MCPS does the same for kids being bullied for being trans or gay.

There is a bit more support and tons of lessons. There are few lessons on Muslin, Jewish or other cultures and lifestyles.

lol there are definitely not "tons of lessons." my experience is that there are no "lessons" about being gay/Muslim/Jewish/etc. Characters with those characteristics may be in books read, but the books are taught to facillitate comprehension of reading, etc.

I do have to wonder if all of you commenting about what MCPS is like are in some different Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-sides-religious-parents-145321464.html

parents won.

If you don't want your kid to learn about science or see female teachers, then you can keep your kids at home, just like these parents.

No no the SC says that my kid can opt out of anything I find religiously objectionable. That includes female teachers. The school must make a male-only space for mg child.

No, SCOTUS said they can keep the kids home. You can too.

That's not what they said at all.

In essence, yes it is. Parents had wanted to opt their kid out, but MCPS stated that if they do, it would be an unexcused absence. SCOTUS said, basically, it would be an excused absence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The rolling was that would be too much of a burden on a large school system and then it’s up to the parents to keep their kids out of the class. It’s only the responsibility of the teacher administration to let the parents know what books are being read.

Are you telling me that your religion is too much of a burden?

I'm wondering if you've even read the ruling, as it says nothing like that at all.

If not for the fact that it would pull more money from the schools in wasted legal fees, I would LOVE to see MCPS try it, just for the entertainment value of seeing them smacked down again.

How much did MCPS spend fighting this and other issues like special needs this year?

how much would MCPS have to spend by accommodating every alternative curricula needed?