Seattle school district prohibits parents from opting kids out of LBGTQ lessons despite SCOTUS ruling 

Legal concerns are ramping up over a Seattle school district policy banning parents from opting their children out of LGBTQ-related curriculum, which one attorney told The Lion is “directly contradictory” to a recent Supreme Court ruling.

Seattle Public Schools, which has nearly 50,000 students enrolled, recently enacted a policy specifying that “there is no option to ‘opt students out’ of learning about particular identities or groups of people.”

For instance, families cannot opt out of “book readings that include LGBTQ+ characters,” including a required book for kindergarteners called Introducing Teddy. In the book, a teddy bear, Thomas, tells his friend that he’s sad because “In my heart, I’ve always known that I’m a girl teddy, not a boy teddy. I wish my name was Tilly, not Thomas.”  

His friend responds, “I don’t care if you’re a girl teddy or a boy teddy! What matters is that you are my friend.” The lesson plan aims to teach children that “there are many ways to express gender.”  

In first and second grades, children are required to learn about boys wearing dresses, that “there is no such thing as ‘girl things’ or ‘boy things’” and discuss gender identity, which the lesson plan defines as “how you feel inside about whether you are a boy or a girl, or something else.” 

The lessons are “teaching kids down to kindergarten that may or may not be able to tie their own shoes that you can change genders, that it is loving and supportive to accept that,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Kate Anderson, who lives in the Seattle area, told The Lion. The school district is making it clear that it is attempting to “instill these values in kids, values that directly contradict the values that their parents are trying to raise their kids with,” she added.

The school’s official policy forbidding parents from opting out of LGBTQ-related curriculum was passed after the Supreme Court in June specifically ruled against a similar policy in Mahmoud v. Taylor. In that case, the court sided with a diverse group of Maryland parents – including Christians, Jews and Muslims – who argued not allowing opt-outs was a violation of their religious rights.

“For a long time, the courts have said that parents direct their kids’ education and upbringing, and that includes things like how they’re educated, even in public schools,” Anderson said, noting that the Mahmoud case went even further to confirm parental rights by agreeing that schools must provide parents with an ability to opt-out of LGBTQ-related instruction. 

Schools “can’t be imposing values that substantially interfere with a child’s religious development,” Anderson said. “And yet, that’s what you’re seeing now happening in Seattle, flying in the face of that Supreme Court precedent.”

Asked if she anticipates a lawsuit in the future, Anderson encouraged parents to reach out if they are struggling to opt their children out of LGBTQ-themed lessons. “I think it needs to be dealt with,” she said. “We’re extremely concerned about the issue.”

The legal questions at stake extend beyond Seattle’s boundaries, as Anderson said she is hearing of similar instances across the country, including in districts in Michigan and New York.

“The Supreme Court has made clear, and the Constitution has long stood for, the parents are the ones who direct their kids’ education and upbringing, and they do not lose their rights at the schoolhouse gate,” she said. While Seattle’s policy is more blatant than most, “there are many schools that are declining to opt kids out, and there’s going to need to be more litigation, more parents standing up to protect parents’ rights on this issue in follow up from Mahmoud.” 

Seattle Public Schools did not respond to a request from The Lion for comment on its policy.