A Christian mother who fought Montgomery County schools’ policy on LGBTQ story time all the way to the Supreme Court says her case should be the start of building a better educational system in Maryland and across the country.
Svitlana Roman, a member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, joined other parents of different faiths to fight for the right to opt their children out of the school system’s LGBTQ reading lessons, and the high court affirmed their opposition this year.
On Monday, Ms. Roman addressed the White House Religious Liberty Commission, saying that public school systems in America should respect parents’ religions and their concerns.
Ms. Roman said that she and her husband had moved to Montgomery County — where he was raised — for the excellent school districts for their son. However, they were surprised when he was required to participate in LGBTQ story time, which the district mandated as early as kindergarten.
“As Christians, we teach our son that every person is loved by God and should be treated with dignity and respect. We also teach him that sex is a gift from God and a natural, unchanging part of who we are,” she told the commissioners. “Many of these books introduced sexual concepts to children at an inappropriately young age, putting children in the untenable position of having to question who to trust — their teachers or their parents.”
She said the books encourage students to discuss what it means to be “nonbinary” and that doctors “guess” gender at birth.
When the school district refused to allow parents to opt their children out of the mandatory lessons, some families had to move their children out of the area to other schools, Ms. Roman said.
“Most families had to make significant changes and sacrifices in order to not forfeit their faith. Some families made the difficult decision to move their children to private schools at great personal and financial cost. Others sacrificed greatly and chose to homeschool,” she said. “There are countless families of children with special needs who have to replicate costly public school services for their children while making sure they are being taught in accordance with their faith.”
“The School Board’s total disregard of reasonable parent concerns that we experienced in Montgomery County is a symptom of a much more systemic, nationwide problem: an educational culture that is hostile to religion and historically orthodox religious views. Our case should be the beginning, not the end, of building an educational system that is more responsive to religious rights and parental concerns,” she told the commissioners.
The Supreme Court delivered a major win to the parents in June, saying Montgomery County public schools went too far in trying to force pro-LGBTQ messages on pre-K and elementary students without giving their families a chance to opt out if they had religious objections.
The 6-3 ruling said the county’s policy, which called for pro-LGBTQ storybooks to be woven into the curriculum for students as young as kindergarten, violated the families’ First Amendment religious rights.
Justice Samual A. Alito Jr. said the families needed, at the least, to be notified when the LGBTQ lessons were going to be delivered and given a chance to have their children excused.
“A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ’a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,” wrote Justice Alito, a George W. Bush appointee. “And a government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents’ acceptance of such instruction.”
Montgomery County had cast its curriculum as an effort at tolerance.
Parents from mixed faiths had demanded an opt-out, which the county first granted, then withdrew, saying too many people were signing up for the opt-out.
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.