By Kathleen Gilbert
LEXINGTON, MA, October 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After mounting a ferocious battle to preserve traditional marriage values, David Parker could only watch helplessly as the United States Supreme Court left intact a lower court ruling that allowed Massachusetts schools to promote homosexuality in the classroom without telling parents or allowing them to opt out.
“The Federal Supreme court of the United States has tragically decided to deny our case from moving forward,” said Parker in a statement following the Supreme Court rejection. “We have exhausted all our legal options in the Federal system for the protection of young children in the public schools. The Supreme Court has cowardly turned their backs on a parental rights issue that clearly has national significance with profound consequences.”
LifeSiteNews.com has chronicled the long mission in Massachusetts to combat homosexual indoctrination in public grade schools, which unfolded with bitter tenacity on both sides.
Parker’s conflict with Estabrook Elementary School in Lexington began in 2005 when his child was subjected to pro-homosexual curriculum and discussions in his kindergarten class. Parker pleaded before the Lexington school committee that parents be forewarned about any homosexual indoctrination; but the committee refused to answer him. Parker was arrested the following evening for trespassing when he refused to leave a meeting with the principal, who also denied Parker the right to know about or opt out of the curriculum (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/05042910.html). The charges were later dropped.
In 1996, David and Tonia Parker joined Rob and Robin Wirthlin and filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the school after the Wirthlins’ 2nd-grade son was read a children’s story about homosexual love during a class on marriage (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06042802.html). After the suit was dismissed by Federal District Judge Mark L. Wolf in early 2007, the parents appealed.
But in February of this year the Federal Appeals Court panel also allowed pro-homosexual materials to be taught to 2nd graders without their parents’ consent, and did not consider it “indoctrination.” The court admitted that the book was read to “influence the listening children toward tolerance of gay marriage,” but said that because the case is on the “influence-toward-tolerance end,” it was not a breach of civil rights (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08020404.html).
MassResistance.org, the home base for the Massachusetts traditional values initiative sparked by Parker’s activism, lamented that the Supreme Court rejected the appeal after Parker spent “nearly a quarter million dollars of his savings, supported by thousands of parents across America and several foreign countries.”
But Parker says he isn’t about to give up the fight.
“We believe that parents have the right and sacred responsibility to defend the psyches of their young impressionable children against such child predation,” he said.
“This despicable ruling is not of the people, nor for the people, and nor by the people—but against them. We, the people, must take back our government for the sake of our children and the sake of this nation.”
To learn more about the Massachusetts fight for traditional marriage values in school, visit: https://www.massresistance.org
Previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Court: No Opt-out of Homosexual Indoctrination in Class for Massachusetts Parents
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08020404.html
Court Rules Schools Can Teach Homosexuality Without Parents Consent or Choice to Opt Out
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022604.html
National Gay Groups Fight Parents Over Mandatory Homosexual Indoctrination in Mass. Schools
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06100606.html
Seven-Year-Old Beaten at School For Father’s Stand Against Homosexual Activism
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06061410.html
Parents Sue Massachusetts School for Promoting Homosexuality to Young Children
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06042802.html
Massachusetts Superintendent Instructs Schools: Parents Do Not Have to be Informed About “Diversity” Classes
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/sep/05092602.html
Father of 6-Year-Old Arrested Over Objection to Homosexual Curriculum in Kindergarten Class
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/05042910.html