Tag: parental rights

ADF Demands Colorado District Scrap or Overhaul Sex-Ed Curriculum

A national religious-liberty legal organization has sent a formal letter to Colorado’s Roaring Fork School District demanding it discontinue its human sexuality curriculum or, at minimum, overhaul how parents are notified and allowed to exclude their children from it.

Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, sent the letter Tuesday to the Roaring Fork Schools Board of Education and Superintendent Anna Cole, escalating a dispute over the district’s “3Rs” curriculum – short for Rights, Respect, Responsibility – that has simmered in the Roaring Fork Valley for months.

What ADF is alleging

In the letter and in a subsequent social media statement, ADF argued the curriculum exposes children as young as 5 to graphic and ideologically driven material about human sexuality, including anatomical images that are followed by quizzes asking students to identify body parts such a nipple, vulva, and clitoris. The group also said lessons direct young children to discuss how they like to be touched and to reject a binary understanding of gender.

By sixth grade, according to ADF, students are directed to act as “Sex Ed Sleuths” who research sexual-education websites on their own, with parental permission or involvement only addressed after that research is complete.

The letter goes further in the upper grades. In a seventh-grade lesson titled “I Am Who I Am,” the curriculum teaches students that the idea of choosing one’s sexual orientation or gender identity is a myth, and students are required to affirm that concept on a worksheet, according to ADF.

Eighth graders, the letter states, fill out a separate worksheet rating how “LGBTQ-inclusive” their school is, using measures such as whether the school celebrates Valentine’s Day for LGBTQ couples, displays LGBTQ-themed posters in hallways, and uses the term “parent/guardian” rather than “mom and dad.”

High schoolers complete their own myth-or-fact worksheet affirming that a person cannot change his or her sexual orientation and are instructed to avoid terms like “homosexual” or “straight,” ADF’s letter states. The letter also says the high school curriculum favors gender-inclusive phrasing – using a term for female anatomy in place of “girl or woman” – as part of its approach to gender inclusivity.

ADF’s letter is also sharply critical of how the district structures parental notice and opt-outs. The group alleges Roaring Fork requires only two weeks’ notice before a 3Rs lesson is taught, that some parents receive even less, and that the district’s opt-out process is difficult to find – a paper opt-out letter placed in a student’s take-home folder, paired with a digital version the letter says is often buried among other announcements on the Remind app and labeled generically as “health education,” which obscures its content from parents. ADF argues this system was deliberately designed to preserve high participation rates rather than to give parents a genuine choice, contrasting it with the district’s own stated goal of ensuring students have access to health education.

The letter cites the case of a Crystal River Elementary School parent whose kindergartner brought home the “Understanding Our Bodies” lesson plan in January 2026. According to ADF, the opt-out form included in the folder did not specify a lesson date, only stating the lesson would occur “the following month,” and did not include the graphic slides that would accompany the lesson.

The school listed the curriculum under different names in different places, ADF’s letter states, referring to it as “Comprehensive Health Curriculum” in the take-home folder and simply “Health Curriculum” in a monthly online newsletter – where the announcement was mixed in with other school news and required parents to click through a link in the Remind app to find it.

ADF, which describes itself as the world’s largest legal organization focused on religious freedom, free speech, and parental rights, framed the core issue as a constitutional one: automatic enrollment in the lessons, combined with what it called inconsistent notice to parents and, in some cases, no meaningful opportunity to opt children out.

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Minister strips parental access to children’s health records

Newfoundland parents just got the memo: Once your kid turns 12, the government says you’re no longer automatically entitled to know what’s in their medical records.

A June 19 letter from NL Health Services quietly ended automatic parental access to children’s health information. From age 12 to 15, parents now need the child’s permission to see the records. At 16, the teenager takes full control.

Sarah James Furlong, a concerned parent, took to social media in a bid to raise awareness of the apparent government assault on parental rights. Furlong is calling on parents to contact the Minister of Health, Lela Evans, to reverse the decision.

“I respect children’s rights and understand the importance of privacy,” Furlong said in a Facebook post. “However, I believe parents have a fundamental responsibility to protect, support, and advocate for their children—and that responsibility doesn’t end when a child turns 12.”

The move fits a pattern. Newfoundland and Labrador already lets students in Grade 7 and up change their names and pronouns at school without parental consent. Now the same province is extending that logic into medical records.

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California’s Gender Secrecy Law Suffers Another Setback in Federal Court

A federal appeals court temporarily blocked a California gender secrecy law that allows schools to hide students’ “gender transitions” from parents. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck another blow to the law on Thursday, siding with the City of Huntington Beach over the State of California. A three-judge panel issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law as litigation continues, specifically citing the Supreme Court’s March ruling against the law in a separate case called Mirabelli v. Bonta. 

“In light of Mirabelli, the Movants are likely to succeed on the merits of their constitutional claim, including the required threshold showing of Article III standing,” the panel wrote.

Nick Barry, senior counsel at America First Legal (AFL) representing the City of Huntington Beach in the case, called the Ninth Circuit’s decision a “powerful vindication of parental rights.”

“California cannot use state law to force schoolteachers and administrators into a conspiracy of silence against parents. California’s law, and similar school policies, use state coercion to intentionally interfere with the parent-child relationship and separate a child from their parent,” Barry said in a statement. “That is wrong and unlawful. The Constitution is clear — parents have the right to know what is happening with their children and make decisions regarding their mental health, and no state law can override that fundamental protection.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the law in July 2024, making California the first state to ban school districts from requiring staff to inform parents if their child changes “gender” identification at school.

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‘Grotesque abuse’: Judge orders homeschooling parents to JAIL for failing to teach daughters government ‘gender’ lessons

In a stunning illustration of what happens when politically correct and biased judges, driven by leftist social agendas, are put behind the bench, one jurist has ordered two homeschooling parents to jail for 50 days for failing to teach their daughters the judge’s version of “gender” education.

The parents now have convictions for “intellectual neglect,” issued by the unidentified Brazilian judge, according to a report from ADF International.

The legal team reported the judge issued his wild opinion that was opposite of even recommendations from prosecutors, who listened to witnesses and results of the social and academic development of the girls, both accomplished pianists who speak multiple languages, and then said the parents should be acquitted.

The judge was accepting no evidence, however, and said the parents were “using their daughters as pawns in an ideological struggle, subjecting them to a form of unregulated education, the effectiveness and quality of which lack adequate metrics within the Brazilian legal system, while completely excluding the State’s involvement.”

The report identified the parents as Audato and Ieda Denardi, and their sentences are suspended while they appeal to a higher court.

The judge also ranted against the parents because he thought the girls, ages 11 and 15, didn’t like Brazilian folk music, leading him to assume that they weren’t educated properly in “diversity.”

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Under Pressure, Michigan Makes It Easier to Opt Out of Vaccine Tracking

Michigan health freedom and privacy advocates scored a win this month when the state’s health department stopped using a vaccine information handout that failed to explain to parents how they can opt out of the state’s vaccine tracking program, and didn’t include an opt-out form.

It’s the latest development in health freedom and privacy advocates’ efforts to get the state health department to stop adding a thick layer of bureaucratic red tape — which isn’t even required under state law — that makes it difficult for families to opt out of vaccines and vaccination tracking.

“While this is definitely a win, there is still a long way to go,” said journalist and Michigan resident Jeremy R. Hammond, who has a 13-year-old unvaccinated son.

Until now, the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (MDHHS) largely avoided telling parents what the tracking system is and how they can opt out of it, Hammond said.

This matters because the state’s vaccination tracking system, Michigan Care Improvement Registry (MCIR), causes “pressure and coercion” for families who prefer not to vaccinate, according to Dr. Remington Nevin, medical director for the St. Clair County Health Department in rural eastern Michigan.

Dubbed “Michigan’s ‘RFK Jr.’” by Bridge Michigan, Nevin is an epidemiologist with multiple degrees from Johns Hopkins University. He is also a former U.S. Army major and preventive medicine officer.

Nevin spoke with The Defender about why it’s crucial for parents to be able to opt out of MCIR — and how he submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that likely led the state health department to stop using the old form and start making it easier for parents to opt out.

State health department violated Michigan law

The MCIR system sends reminders to medical staff to encourage them to keep their pediatric patients up to date with the American Academy of Pediatrics or the American Academy of Family Physicians childhood vaccine schedule.

When a child visits a clinic, front desk staff and nurses may tell parents their child is due for a particular vaccine, even though “the parent and the child’s physician may have decided together through shared clinical decision-making to not give that shot until later on in the child’s life,” Nevin said.

Michigan law requires the state health department to give parents a form — before vaccinating a child — notifying parents that they can object to having their child automatically enrolled in MCIR.

But for years, MDHHS failed to give parents any such form.

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Girl Kept from Church, Bible, and Christian Friends by Portland Judge Awaits Appeals Court Ruling

Despite her love of Christianity, a young Maine girl has been prevented since 2024 from going to church, attending religious holidays, being “exposed” to the Bible or other scriptural literature, and even having Christian friends — all because of a judge’s order in a parental rights case.

The draconian restrictions have been in place for some 18 months as Emily Bickford and her daughter Ava, 13, wait for a decision on an appeal to the state’s Supreme Court eight months ago after Portland District Judge Jennifer Nofsinger issued the shocking ruling in late 2024 as part of a dispute between the girl’s parents.

Not only has the ruling impacted the lifestyle and pursuit of happiness by both mother and daughter, on its face it appears incompatible with the founding principles of the United States.

The right to worship granted by the First Amendment is not in the grip of any judge to grant or abolish, the Portland mother told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview this week.

“That is not theirs to take away,” Bickford said. “It’s in our Declaration of Independence. Our forefathers knew we had inalienable rights given by God. God gave us the freedom to worship him, and there’s no government that can take that away from us.”

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Connecticut Governor’s Signature on Anti-Homeschool Bill ‘Marks First Regression of Homeschool Freedom In The Modern Homeschool Movement’

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed HB 5468 into law on May 26 – a day that national homeschooling advocacy organization HSLDA asserts now marks “a notable turning point in homeschool freedom.”

“HB 5468 profoundly transforms Connecticut from a state where parents had significant freedom, to the only state that imposes mandatory background checks by DCFS on every parent before they can homeschool,” HSLDA posted to Facebook to its members nationwide.

“Not after evidence of abuse. Not in response to a specific concern,” the group continued. “But as a condition of carrying out a basic responsibility of parenthood—choosing the best education for your child.”

The national legal advocate also warned that the effects of the alarming anti-freedom bill – passed by a Democratic supermajority even after thousands of parents of all political views demonstrated against it at the state capitol – could be felt in other states with like-minded lawmakers eager to flex their muscles against parental rights and add “layers of regulation, restriction and bureaucracy to homeschooling families.”

During debate on the bill, Education Committee Co-Chair State Sen. Douglas McCrory (D-Hartford) defended it by likening the requirement of a Department of Children and Families (DCF) background check on all parents who wish to homeschool to the background check required on all teachers in government schools.

If the parents are the teachers, the same standard should hold in order to “know that the adults who are responsible for educating these children do not have a history of harming children,” he said.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) dismissed parents’ concerns over the legislation.

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GLAAD Opposes Informing Parents About Grooming Content in Kid Shows

The fascists at GLAAD are raging against the idea that parents be informed about gay content in a children’s television show.

Breitbart News reported last month that the “Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced an inquiry this week into a TV ratings system that is required to warn parents about adult content in children’s shows, but has not addressed all the LGBT propaganda pushed at kids these days.”

This, of course, is long overdue. It is outrageous that sicko corporations like the Disney Grooming Syndicate sneak gay, queer, and transsexual propaganda in television shows aimed at small children. Going behind the back of parents to expose complex adult sexuality to little kids, to shatter their innocence when that innocence is vital to producing a psychologically healthy adult, is nothing less than child abuse, and it has already gone on far too long.

Naturally, the far-left GLAAD wants this outrage to continue, but GLAAD also gives away the game:

On April 22, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a new inquiry seeking public comment by May 22 and reply comments by June 22 about whether television ratings should be modified to specifically warn parents about the presence of LGBTQ+ stories. The Public Notice frames this issue as “empowering parents to protect their children,” yet those who study media history know it is not about protecting children, rather a revival of the same tactics used to purge LGBTQ+ characters from the screen for decades.

This FCC inquiry is a brazen attempt to remove LGBTQ+ people from television, rooted in the false assertion that being LGBTQ+ needs a warning label — stigmatizing our stories and decreasing the chances they will be made at all. [emphasis mine]

Yeah, that’s right, GLAAD: if you don’t sneak this propaganda in, people will reject it. Thank you for accidentally admitting that.

Currently, television warns us in advance about content that shows actors smoking cigarettes, strobing, adult sexuality, but not that we’re about to see two hairy guys swap spit?

I have no issue with gay romance in television, movies, or wherever. The arts should be for everyone. The arts should create content relatable to everyone. No, I’m not gonna watch it. In fact, I’m going to avoid it. But I don’t resent it. This is America.

What I do resent is getting sucker-punched with it.

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Lawsuit: D300 secretly gender transitioned student; Seeks to nix IL gender ‘guidance,’ too

A mother from Chicago’s far northwest suburbs has lodged a lawsuit against her child’s public school district, accusing Community Unit School District 300 of allegedly attempting to secretly transition her child’s gender and of blocking the parent’s attempt to learn more about what was happening and be involved, even when the student struggled with suicidal thoughts and required hospitalization for mental health purposes.

However, the class action lawsuit also seeks to more broadly overturn policies at the district and potentially throughout Illinois, which the mother and her lawyer claim trample parents’ constitutional rights.

On May 10, attorney Ajay Gupta, of Naperville, filed suit in Chicago federal court against District 300.

Based in the village of Algonquin, District 300 ranks as the sixth largest public school district in Illinois, has a student population of more than 20,000 students from communities within a 118 square mile radius in Chicago’s northwest suburbs mostly in Kane County, near the McHenry County line.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a named plaintiff, identified in the complaint only as S.K. According to the complaint, she is the mother of a student at one of the district’s three high schools. District 300 high schools include Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, Harry D. Jacobs High School in Algonquin, and Hampshire High School in Hampshire.

The complaint does not identify which high school the student attended.

According to the complaint, staff at the student’s school allegedly began in 2022 using “alternate name and pronouns” for S.K.’s child, identified in the complaint only as T.K.

The complaint asserts the student at that time “experienced declining mental health and difficulty completing schoolwork.”

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PARENTAL RIGHTS OUTRAGE! Illinois Mother Sues School District, Alleges Officials SECRETLY Socially Transitioned Child After Mental Health Crisis

An Illinois mother has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Community Unit School District 300 of secretly socially transitioning her child at school, withholding key information from her, and cutting her out of a “gender support” plan even after the student had been hospitalized for suicidal ideation.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, names Community Unit School District 300 and Superintendent Dr. Martina Smith as defendants. 

The mother, identified in the complaint only as S.K., alleges that the Algonquin-based district violated her constitutional rights by allowing school officials to make major identity and mental-health-related decisions involving her minor child without parental consent.

“This case challenges a public school district’s policies, practices, and customs of subjecting minor students to psychological and identity-based interventions, while deliberately excluding their parents from participation, consent, and even knowledge,” the complaint states.

The complaint alleges that District 300 officials “socially transitioned minor students at school,” developed “gender support” plans, coordinated with mental-health providers, and withheld material information from parents. 

The lawsuit argues that these actions were “not routine educational judgments,” but rather “state-directed psychological intervention into a minor’s identity, mental health, and familial relationships.”

According to the lawsuit, school personnel began using an alternate name and pronouns for S.K.’s child, T.K., in certain classes in 2022 without informing the mother. 

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