Maryland court rules that parents can’t opt out of inclusivity

A Maryland court ruled this week that parents cannot opt their children out of lessons featuring inclusive LGBTQ+ books on religious grounds, stating that families do not have a “fundamental right” to disrupt public education in the name of their faith.

In the lawsuit, Tamer Mahmoud et. al. v. McKnight et. al., filed in May, three families from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) sought to reinstate a distract policy that would allow them to remove their children from lessons featuring inclusive books because they “contradict their sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage, human sexuality, and gender,” the decision viewed by The Post explained.

Judge Deborah L. Boardman, however, denied the parents’ request for a preliminary injunction for when school starts on Aug. 28, stating that they failed to establish that their due process right to shape their children’s education in line with their religious practices was a “fundamental right,” the document continued.

In her write-up, the Biden appointee cited several known benefits of inclusive curriculums, including “[f]oster[ing] social integration and cultural inclusiveness of transgender and gender nonconforming students” and reducing stigma in the community.

 “The no-opt-out policy does not pressure the parents to refrain from teaching their faiths, to engage in conduct that would violate their religious beliefs, or to change their religious beliefs. The policy may pressure them to discuss the topics raised by the storybooks with their children, but those discussions are anticipated, not prohibited, by the parents’ faiths,” Boardman wrote.

“The parents are not pressured into violating their religious beliefs in order to obtain the benefits of a public education.”

The injunction denial is merely one step of the ongoing suit: The court will still hear the entire case before issuing a final decision.

The controversy in Maryland’s largest public school district erupted last fall, when the schools introduced over 20 inclusivity books for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, Becket Religious Liberty for All, the law firm representing the parents, explained.

Initially, parents received notice when these books – including “Pride Puppy” and “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” – would be in their child’s classroom.

In March, however, the district issued a statement that it would no longer notify parents or honor their requests to remove their students from these lessons, the organization stated.

MCPS did not immediately return The Post’s request for a comment on the policy change or Judge Boardman’s decision.

Parents from multiple faith backgrounds – including Islam, Catholicism, and Orthodox Christianity – opposed the policy change, and argued that the lessons that mentioned same-sex relationships, pride parades, and drag queens violated their religious teachings, Becket’s website said.

Boardman’s decision “flies in the face of parental freedom, childhood innocence, and basic human decency,” Becket’s senior counsel, Erci Baxter, told Fox News Digital.

“The court’s decision is an assault on children’s right to be guided by their parents on complex and sensitive issues regarding human sexuality. The School Board should let kids be kids and let parents decide how and when to best educate their own children consistent with their religious beliefs,” he ranted.

One of the fathers involved in the suit, Dagmawi Lakew, said in an interview on Aug. 9 that their “rights as a parent are just being stripped away.”

“We want to be able to be in control of what our children are learning in school,” he lamented.

Becket did not immediately reply to The Post’s request for additional comments on the Thursday ruling.

Dozens of other district parents rallied outside the court on Thursday to celebrate Boardman’s ruling.

“I think it’s really important that everybody is included, that kids get exposure to people who are not like them,” parent Mara Greengrass told NBC News.

“MCPS remains committed to cultivating an inclusive and welcoming learning environment and creating opportunities where all students see themselves and their families in curriculum materials,” the district told the outlet.

“We also will continue to adhere to our responsibility to include instructional materials that reflect the diversity of the local and global community by exploring the aspirations, issues, and achievements of women and men, people with disabilities, people from diverse racial, ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds, as well as those of diverse gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.”