School to parents: Kids required to take gender orientation classes

A statement by public school officials in Orange County, California, is earning a tongue-in-cheek "how thoughtful" from the Family Research Council.

The issue is that school officials have dictated that all children will go through the district LGBT indoctrination program, with no exceptions.

That means parents who have chosen to opt their children out of objectionable and offensive teachings that violate their faith are not allowed to do so.

But a lawyer for the district claims parents still are allowed to teach their beliefs to their children in their own home.

"You mean you'll let us make the decisions when our kids are home? How thoughtful," expressed the Family Research Council in a commentary.

"It's every parent's worst nightmare: someone exposes your kids to something harmful – and you can't stop them. That's exactly the situation in Orange County, California, where the school district has decided that LGBT lessons are too important to let families opt out," FRC said.

Fox News' Todd Starnes also commented on the dispute.

He quoted the policy from the school: "Parents who disagree with the instructional materials related to gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation may not excuse their children from this instruction."

He said the district was voluntarily granting permission to parents to "rebut the materials at home."

"Parents are free to advise their children that they disagree with some or all of the information presented in the instructional program and express their views on these subjects to their children," the school told Starnes.

"The Orange County Department of Education feels it is their right to GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO DISAGREE WITH THEM. These are our children! They do not belong to the schools," said a mother, Heidi St. John, in a Lifesite News report.

Explained FRC: "District officials try to head-off any controversy by including this gem in the same memo: 'The courts have held that parents do not have the constitutional rights to override the determinations of the state legislature or the school district as to what information their children will be provided in the public school classroom.' In other words, thanks for supplying the kids – we'll handle the brainwashing."

The Council's statement continued: "In case leaders in California missed it, Americans aren't taking radical sex at face value anymore. On Monday, 16 cities in four countries joined the Sex Ed Sit Out to protest programs as fanatical as this one. RedState's Kira Davis says that if Orange County didn't get the message, moms and dads should send them another one."

Starnes was even more direct.

"Allow me to be blunt – the idea that parents do not have the constitutional right to determine what is best for their child is downright evil. Yes, evil. Our nation's public schools have turned into indoctrination centers by a gang of radical, sex and gender revolutionaries."

Other schools have taken a difference approach: They simply subject the children to their sex-indoctrination programs without telling parents.

That's the issue that came up recently in the Albemarle County Public Schools.

The district had presented explicit sex videos to classes of 14-year-old girls and now is being warned by Liberty Counsel that the presentations likely were felony violations of state and federal laws.

"This kind of gutter trash has no place in public schools. This is not education. This is raping children. The school district has caused irreversible harm to children and parents. The school must never allow this to happen again," explained Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver.

The "gutter trash" was forced on students during a presentation from a group called Sexual Assault Resource Agency, which, Liberty Counsel explained, was allowed to present "pornographic videos and curriculum" to students.

Liberty Counsel now represents the parents of the mostly 14-year-old girls at West Albemarle County High school who were in a "Family Life Education" classes on April 13, 2018. The classes were led by Lexie Huston, an employee of SARA, the legal team explained.

In a letter to the district and its officials, Liberty Counsel pointed out the presentation violated Virginia law protecting minors, including a ban on abusing children, encouraging them to engage in sex acts or perform sex acts.

Virginia law also makes it a felony for any person to "take indecent liberties with children; and makes that any 'person 18 years of age or over, who, with lascivious intent, knowingly and intentaionqally commits any of the following acts with any children under the age of 15 years is guilty of a Class 5 felony.'"

The acts include a variety of sex acts, too explicit to be cited in a family news reports.

"The videos proposed to the children that they engage in all of the above," the Liberty Counsel letter said. "Since the video presentation was by a 'person in custodial or supervisory relationship,' a.k.a., Ms. Huston and any other adults in the room, the offense should be upgraded to a Class 6 felony."

It also violated state law banning advertising obscene items, child pornography, and more.

The letter to the Albemarle district asks the district to confirm, in writing, by Tuesday, that SARA is no longer affiliated with the school, nor will Huston present material there, that the "sex positivity" training will no longer be used, that future contractors will follow approved standards, and all materials be given to parents beforehand.

"If I do not receive this response, Liberty Counsel will take further action to prevent further irreparable harm to the rights of our clients," the letter said.