Progressives’ shock over the results of the last election could prove a prelude to what is coming if they continue to ignore parents’ rights. There is no more powerful identity than that of a parent.
Jonathan Turley
| Opinion contributor
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In her celebrated book “Red Scarf Girl,” author Ji-li Jiang recounts growing up during the Cultural Revolution in China. She and millions of others had to choose between obeying the country’s communist government or obeying her parents.
“’Now, you have to choose between two roads,’ ” Jiang wrote. “Thin-Face looked straight into my eyes. ‘You can break with your family and follow Chairman Mao, or you can follow your father and become an enemy of the people.’”
Thankfully, we are constitutionally and culturally protected against such authoritarianism. Yet, we are experiencing our own type of cultural revolution as parents and schools collide over the education of our children.
Court refuses to recognize parents’ rights
A recent legal decision captured this growing divide. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit ruled last month that parents had no protected right to be informed when their children change their gender identity in public school.
In Foote v. Feliciano, Marissa Silvestri and Stephen Foote sued Baird Middle School in Ludlow, Massachusetts, after they learned that school administrators did not inform them that their 11-year-old child had self declared as “genderqueer” and that teachers and staff were using a new name and new pronouns for the student.
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The parents were initially told only that their child was experiencing mental health difficulties, including depression. Silvestri said they would seek mental health support for their child and asked that administrators “not have any private conversations with (the Student) in regards to this matter.”
The parents later learned that the school’s staff had continued to meet with their child without their knowledge, implemented the change in gender identity and took active measures not to reveal the change to them (including using the student’s birth name in communications with the parents). The school, without the parents’ knowledge, arranged for changes in everything from the use of male bathrooms to the exclusive use of the child’s new name in class.
The district court in Massachusetts denied the parents a trial and granted a summary dismissal in favor of the schools.
A panel of three federal judges agreed and rejected any due process claim of parents to be informed, let alone to control, such decisions for an 11-year-old child.
Court says educators, not parents, are ‘experts’ on children
In a truly Orwellian line, the judges declared, “As per our understanding of Supreme Court precedent, our pluralistic society assigns those curricular and administrative decisions to the expertise of school officials, charged with the responsibility of educating children.”
Most of us must have missed that memo. Few would believe that sending our children to a public school means we have transferred the most fundamental parental rights to “experts” on rearing our children.
We understand that schools need to maintain certain standards and conduct. However, changing the gender of a child is a bit more weighty than requiring a school uniform or stipulating nutritional choices in school lunches.
The Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment guarantees citizens that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” There is no part of our lives more valuable to most of us than our children.
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I remember when we had our first child and were escorted out of the hospital by a nurse. After helping my wife into the car, I turned around and was handed a swaddled bundle with a baby inside.
The nurse then walked away as I stood there in a moment of utter panic. We were given a small human being at the curbside with the level of preparation of a Starbucks latte. I stood there looking at my son Ben with the same level of confidence that I would have had if handed a small nuclear device and then tasked with defusing it. You soon realize that you are all in.
The only thing you have at that moment is the only thing you truly need. They have you. Every part of you. Our children had us at hello. The moment that bundle was put in my arms, I changed. I was a dad and all of the prior priorities in my life suddenly became irrelevant.
No one told me at the hospital carport that he was ours until he is old enough to be turned over to the expertise of public school officials.
The fact is, by the time our kids go to school, we are the experts of that child. While teachers clearly have important training and expertise, they do not know that child. Not really.
They were not there to perform monster inspections at 3 a.m. or to wrestle with a goat who decided to eat his favorite blankie at a petting zoo. They do not know that look when he is panicked or that curious smile when he is near tears. These experts took Child Development 101. We have a Ph.D. in our kids, a developmental dissertation on late-night fevers, sibling fights and orthodontic bills.
This is not to say that teachers have no responsibility for children. In too many cases, children can be abused or they may be unable to express themselves to their parents on issues like gender identity. Schools have a right to confirm that a child’s mental health issues are being addressed. However, absent evidence of abuse, the parents must be informed and make decisions on such treatment.
Parents have the natural right to control the upbringing of our kids
The Foote case comes at a time when parents are becoming more alarmed and more active in education. The response from some school boards, teachers and politicians has been strikingly hostile and territorial.
In 2023, Rachel Wall, a now former school board member in Marion, Iowa, posted on Facebook: “The purpose of a public ed is to not teach kids what the parents want. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client is not the parent, but the community.”
In 2022, state Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Wis., tweeted: “If parents want to ‘have a say’ in their child’s education, they should home school or pay for private school tuition out of their family budget.”
Faced with declining educational achievement and rising social agendas, many families are leaving public schools and others are demanding school choice in the form of vouchers.
At the same time, there is growing support for a Parents Bill of Rights. The Trump administration can work with Congress to condition federal funding on schools’ respect for parental rights, even if the courts do not protect such rights.
In the meantime, Foote should be appealed to the Supreme Court, which can reinforce the constitutional protection afforded to parents.
A century ago, the nation’s highest court ruled in Pierce v. Society of Sistersthat “the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”
In its 2000 Troxel v. Granville decision, the court recognized “the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children.”
There is no greater natural right than the right to control the upbringing of our children. This right was not granted to us by the grace of the state. It rests with us as human beings. It is part of a panoply of natural rights embraced by the framers − a commitment made nearly 250 years ago in our Declaration of Independence.
Progressives’ shock over the results of the last election could prove a prelude to what is coming if they continue down this road. There is no more powerful identity than that of a parent. When you mess with our children, all other issues instantly become trivial. It is not just passionate. It is primal.
Many politicians are terrified of defying the far-left teachers unions. They and these “experts” have no inkling of what is coming.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
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