Gary North

This is from www.RedState.Org

"There is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children," stated the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. . . .

Fields v. Palmdale School Dist., -- F.3d-- (9th Cir. 2005), was decided by the court. In that case, parents sued the Palmdale School District for giving a survey, which included ten questions of a sexual nature, to students between the ages of seven and ten.

The School District sent a note home to parents asking for parental consent to engage their children in a survey of early trauma. . . .

The School District, collaborating with the School of Psychology and Seymour, developed and administered the questionnaire to first, third, and fifth grade students. While parents were informed that the survey would cover "baseline . . . exposure to early trauma (for example, violence)," it specifically did not mention sex. In fact, the survey asked seven year olds to "rate the following activities" among which were these:

Read on . . . Nov 2nd, 2005: 22:01:25

8. Touching my private parts too much
17. Thinking about having sex
22. Thinking about touching other peoples private parts
23. Thinking about sex when I dont want to
26. Washing myself because I feel dirty on the inside
34. Not trusting people because they might want sex
40. Getting scared or upset when I think about sex
44. Having sex feelings in my body
47. Cant stop thinking about sex
54. Getting upset when people talk about sex

Seven year olds were asked these questions. The parents of the children learned of the survey questions when their children started telling them about the survey.

Horrified, the parents complained to the school, arguing that had they know the true nature of the survey, they would have never offered their consent. The school district rebuffed the parents, and the parents sued.

The trial court rejected the parents arguments and today, in stunning language, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the rejection. In fact, the Ninth Circuit, in its opinion stated

The district court dismissed the federal causes of action for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted and dismissed the state claims without prejudice to their right to re-file in state court. We agree, and hold that there is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children, either independent of their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed by it. We also hold that parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students.