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.”
