MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — A court decision has been made on whether Maryland's largest public school system, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), can allow parents to opt their children out of lessons involving LGBTQ+ themes.
WUSA9 has been covering this story for months, and in August 2023 several parents of students with the MCPS sued the school district to prevent their children from participating in the curriculum. This came after the school board announced in March 2023 that parents would no longer receive advanced notice of specific storybooks that would be read or be able to opt out their children.
A group of parents in the county believe the responsibility surrounding the curriculum should fall on them and not the school. Last year, there were countless rallies pushing for the school district to put the opt-out policy back in place.
On Wednesday night, the circuit appeals court in Richmond made a new decision stating that the school system does not have to allow parents to opt their children out of these lessons.
U.S. Circuit Judge G. Steven Agee wrote the following opinion about the decision:
Parents whose children attend Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland contend that the Montgomery County Board of Education’s (“the Board’s”) refusal to provide notice and an opportunity to opt out from their children’s exposure to certain books and related discussions violates federal and state law. At the outset of the litigation, the Parents moved for a preliminary injunction to require the Board to provide such notice and an opt-out option. After the district court denied their motion, the Parents filed this interlocutory appeal. We take no view on whether the Parents will be able to present evidence sufficient to support any of their various theories once they have the opportunity to develop a record as to the circumstances surrounding the Board’s decision and how the challenged texts are actually being used in schools. At this early stage, however, given the Parents’ broad claims, the very high burden required to obtain a preliminary injunction, and the scant record before us, we are constrained to affirm the district court’s order denying a preliminary injunction.
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