Bishops offer guidelines for parents
The California Catholic bishops’ conference is alerting parents and guardians of public school children that they have the right to ‘opt out’ of many influences and classes that contradict their family’s values – from instruction in how to perform sexual acts to instruction in the ins and outs of witchcraft and the conjuring of spirits. Ninety percent of California Catholic school children attend public school.
The California Catholic Conference says that most parents don’t realize they need to specifically fill out a form every year for every child and for every activity they find objectionable.
“This is a way to empower parents to get involved,” Catholic Conference Executive Director Ned Dolejsi said. “From Catholic teaching, we understand that parents are the primary teachers of their children.”
At least 9 of every 10 Catholic children in California attend public schools, with the figures even higher for Latino families, which send about 3 percent of their children to parochial schools, according to national statistics. The Catholic Conference guidelines are written in Spanish and in English. (A complete list of guidelines for parents is available at cacatholic.org under the topic of education.
California law, as decided by the state supreme court, permits school districts to dismiss students for confidential medical services, without parental notification and without logging any absence. Thus, parents have no right to know if their child from seventh grade on goes off campus for any “confidential medical services,” including AIDS testing or treatment, birth control, or abortion. However, parents do have control over many other influences, if they have the stamina to navigate the system, the California Catholic Conference said in its back to school message.
Dolejsi said that when parents assert their rights, school districts have a tendency to respond and he said in his experience schools tend to treat respectfully children whose parents decide they will not participate in an activity or a class – rather than singling them out as different, a fear of every school child.
According to California law (Education Code Sections 51240, 51513, and 51938) a parent or guardian may request that his or her child be excused from any class, assembly, presentation, discussion, project, survey, extracurricular activity or program presented by the school district and/or by its agents which involve any of the following: sex or family life education; AIDS or HIV education; acquisition and/or use of birth control devices or drugs; abortion; death education of any type including “assisted suicide”; homosexuality; sexual perversions; showing of R, NC-17 or X-rated films; meditation, yoga, conjuring of spirits; witchcraft; counseling except as recommended by the student’s physician; questionnaires, role playing or other strategies to examine the moral and religious beliefs of the student and/or the student’s family members; diversity education which teaches tolerance for variant lifestyles.
Many parents or guardians are unfamiliar with the laws that govern what their child will be allowed to do — or asked to do — and unaware of certain ideas and information that will be presented to their child while in public school, according to a document sent out via the Catholic Legislative Network email this month.
“I think it has been forgotten in our particular experience of education that legally the state through the school districts operates ‘in loco parentis’ or in place of the parent and that implies a partnership between the parents and the school district in the moral formation of their children,” Dolejsi said. “Every teacher who is out there who is worth their salt will say it is so much easier to educate a child when the parents are involved.”
Among the stack of forms sent home at the beginning of the school year is one that is often difficult to decipher because of the “legalese” that tells parents and guardians that permission is assumed unless the parent opts out, the Conference said. Parents must opt out using a specific form available for the school office and specifically listing topics and activities from which they want their child excluded, the Conference said.
In addition, all parents or guardians have the right to examine copies of all tests, questionnaires, or surveys that inquire about students’ or their parents’ personal beliefs, family life, religion or sex practices. They also have a right to know the approximate time and date a topic or activity is planned, the Conference said.
More information is available at cacatholic.org, click on Topics on the top bar and then click on Education in the drop down menu.
By Valerie Schmalz
From September 3, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
