(The Center Square) – The back-to-school list from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty has nothing to do with pens, pencils and notebooks.
Instead, WILL is offering parents a list of resources to opt their children out of classes or lessons that moms and dads don’t agree with.
“As the school year approaches, parents should consider opting out of material that interferes [with] religious beliefs, like extreme LGBTQ curriculum,” WILL Dan Lennington said on social media. “These NEW resources are prompted by Mahmoud v. Taylor, the SCOTUS case holding that parents have a right to opt-out from classes, units and materials that interfere with religious beliefs.”
WILL’s Cory Brewer said the idea at the heart of the opt-out forms is that moms and dads know what’s best for their students, not teachers or school administrators.
“Parents, not government officials, have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children, and that principle must be upheld in every school” Brewer said.
She said the opt-out forms will “empower parents” to “stand up” for their children, and their beliefs.
Will has a generic opt-out form that it says will give parents a legal guide on how to request a waiver for a class or lesson.
But there are also opt-out forms for the pro-LGBTQ website TrevorSpace, and an opt-out letter for human growth and development classes. There is a third letter for parents that asks for an opt-out from “issues and topics through race-based lens.”
“WILL fights against these policies by advocating that the law and public policy should be colorblind, by not treating individuals differently based on their race. Many families feel similarly,” WILL wrote at its opt-out portal.
There are also templates for letters to teachers, and a model policy for school districts who want to embrace the opt-outs on a larger scale.
Find the letters, and the other resources that WILL has as part of its back-to-school package, here.
