Reply to WaPo Columnist: Why Montgomery County should listen to its parents

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[quote=Anonymous]Marc Fisher, a Washington Post columnist, wrote about the LGBTQ ELA Books opt-out case that the Supreme Court decided on this year: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/07/30/public-schools-sexuality-parents-montgomery-county/

In his column, he rightly pointed out his own hypocrisy after initially judging the parents requesting opt-outs as he decided to opt his kids out of viewing the film "Life Is Beautiful" because he felt it did not accurately depict the Holocaust.

He also reached out to MCPS to get clarity on how it would structure the opt-out options for parents in the upcoming school year and more importantly rebuild the trust it has broken with the opt-out parents, and in true MCPS fashion they stiff-armed him, declined to give substantive specifics and threw word salad at him. I thought his piece struck a thoughtful and accurate balance that MCPS needs to strike and failed to strike, which led to the unfortunate Supreme Court case.

[QUOTE]I asked to speak with the MCPS officials deciding how schools will comply with the court’s ruling this fall. That request was denied. The school system’s spokeswoman, Liliana Lopez, offered this statement: “We are working to determine next steps in order to meet the expectations of the Court’s ruling and remain true to our shared values of learning, relationships, respect, excellence and equity.” She said MCPS will update families and staffers before school starts.

Persak hasn’t heard from his daughters’ school. He expects MCPS to, as his lawyer put it, “rebuild trust with parents whom they slandered.” (At least one Montgomery County elected official said pro-opt-out parents were on the same side as “white supremacists and outright bigots.”)

I hope the school system reaches out to parents who want to opt their kids out of lessons on sexuality. And I hope the county stands firm against those who would expand parents’ roles in choosing books and lessons. The last thing the county needs is the kind of cleansing of bookshelves now happening in nearby Virginia, where school boards have removed 223 books from libraries in the past five years.

Educators deserve to decide how best to achieve society’s goals in the classroom. And parents get to push back with their votes and, ultimately, by asserting their authority to raise their children as they see fit. All of this is inherently contradictory — and that’s exactly as it should be. The beauty of the system lies in the tension between opposing ideas.[/QUOTE]

I doubt MCPS will listen but let's see.[/quote]

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