Court sides with parents in Maryland who protested exposure to storybooks they found objectionable
The US supreme court has ruled that schools must give children the chance to opt out on faith grounds from listening to storybooks being read out loud that feature gay and transgender characters, in a landmark decision that will be seen as striking a blow for religious rights in education.
In a case that exposed the passions surrounding the US’s religious-secular divide, the court sided with parents in Maryland who protested that they were left with no means of shielding their children from the contents of six storybooks they found objectionable.
The ruling means that the Montgomery county board of education – which administers schools in some of Washington DC’s most affluent suburbs – must provide opt-out facilities.
In the case, Mahmoud v Taylor, three sets of parents, comprising Muslims, Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, complained that the board’s policy in effect forced their children to hear storylines that they alleged promoted “political ideologies about family life and human sexuality that are inconsistent with sound science, common sense, and the well-being of children”.
