Two days after summer vacation had ended, Johnny’s mother received a phone call from his teacher telling her that he was misbehaving.
“Wait a minute,” said Johnny’s mom, “I had him with me for two months and I never called you once when he misbehaved!”
It’s true that summer vacation finds parents in charge of their children 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But who has final authority over their children during the school year? There are court cases involving parental rights that are setting a harmful precedent for the future, and I sincerely hope you’ll hear me out as I share a couple of these cases.
Last year, the Ontario Superior Court ruled against a doctor who opposed his children being exposed to LGTBQ beliefs in the Health and Physical Education curriculum. The judge reasoned there was no proof that his children had been harmed.
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However one of the three judges in the proceedings said, “In my view there are limits imposed by the Charter on a province’s power to use publicly funded education to expose children to beliefs that educational authorities have determined are necessary.” He also added “There is the right of parents to care for their children and make decisions for their well-being, including decisions about education, is primary, and the state’s authority is secondary to that parental right.”
Consequently you have to wonder why this parent lost his case. It was an expensive venture for him, even though a non-profit organization, The Parental Rights in Education Defense Fund, helped raise funds to help pay for his court costs. Meanwhile, the Ontario government footed the bill of well over $500,000 to fight against him.
A second incident involves a family in Alberta with two autistic children, one of whom joined her school’s gay/straight alliance club (GSA). Because of Bill 24, which makes it illegal in Alberta to notify a parent if their child joins a GSA club and/or decides to transition, the 12-year-old’s parents were not told that she had joined the club. Neither were they told that the school had begun the transitioning process with hormones, a change of name and allowing the girl to use the boys’ washroom. The parents only realized something was amiss when the autistic girl became depressed and suicidal.
In court, the judge dismissed the expert testimony presented, proving harm had occurred, and you will recall the previous case was lost because it was stated there was no proof that harm had taken place. As you can see, parental rights are subject to decisions made by judges whose personal biases come into play.
Do you feel the state’s authority over children is secondary to that of parental rights? I would venture to guess that if your children or grandchildren were being taught values and ideologies which you believed were not beneficial to their well-being, you would say parental rights should trump the state’s authority.
All we have to do is take a look into history during the Second World War and see what happened when government dictated to parents what was beneficial and what was harmful for their children. Needless to say, it didn’t work out well.
Unlike Johnny’s mother, most parents appreciate receiving phone calls from teachers who willingly relate what’s happening with their child at school. They appreciate it because their children are their first priority, every hour of every day, all year, every year, not just during summer vacation.
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