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Parents Sue Massachusetts School for Promoting Homosexuality to Young Children

By Gudrun Schultz

BOSTON, Massachusetts, April 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An ongoing struggle in a Boston suburb over homosexual material in elementary classrooms has culminated in a lawsuit between parents and the school system.

David and Tonia Parker, and Rob and Robin Wirthlin are suing the town of Lexington and its public school system after their children were given books normalizing gay families. Attempts to reach a compromise with the school failed after officials refused to agree to the parents request that their young children be exempted from homosexual material and discussions in the classroom.

The parents decided on a lawsuit after a homosexual fairy tale, “King & King,” was read to the Wirthlin’s seven-year-old son in class. In the story, a prince turns away one beautiful princess after another until finally falling in love with another prince. The princes’ marry, kiss, and live happily ever after. The story was read as part of a class on weddings.

The book has generated complaints across the country, ranking eighth in the American Library Association’s list of the top 10 books people wanted removed from libraries in 2004, according to a report by Reuters.

The parents filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Boston, claiming their federal civil rights were violated. The suit charges that the school acted illegally when it failed to notify them of the homosexual material, and refused to agree to notify them in the future, reported Reuters yesterday. A 1996 Massachusetts law requires that parents be notified of sex-education lessons.

One year ago David Parker was arrested and charged with trespassing, after a scheduled meeting with school officials deteriorated.  The Parkers’ were upset over a book sent home with their five-year-old son in January of 2005, “Who’s in a Family,” that presents families with gay or lesbian parents as normal. At the meeting, school officials refused to agree to the Parkers’ demand that their son be exempted from future exposure to gay-promotional material.

Massachusett’s pro-family groups, the Parents Rights Coalition and Article 8 Alliance, say the recent legalization of gay marriage in the state has refuelled an organized campaign by homosexual activists to teach acceptance for homosexuality in the school system.

On their website, Article 8 Alliance quotes Robert Skutch, author of “Who’s in a Family,” saying that “the whole purpose of the book was to get the subject [of same-sex parent households] out into the minds and the awareness of children before they are old enough to have been convinced that there’s another way of looking at life.”

“…It would be really nice if children were not subjected to the – I don’t want to use the work ‘bigotry,’ but that’s what I want to say anyway – of their parents and older people,” he said in an interview with National Public Radio.

Article 8 Alliance:
http://www.article8.org/

Parents Rights Coalition:
http://www.parentsrightscoalition.org/

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