Old School
February 23, 2007
In a decision with culture-war implications, US District Judge Mark Wolf tosses out a lawsuit brought by parents in Lexington, Massachusetts who challenged the local public school system’s right to teach elementary school students about topics pertaining to human sexuality. Read the text of the ruling. It will be interesting to see if Republicans who support Rudy Guiliani criticize the ruling, since Guiliani would likely agree with Judge Wolf’s underlying sentiments.
UPDATE: Some more thoughts on Judge Wolf’s ruling:
- I’d love to see this case go all the way to the US Supreme Court. This case transcends traditional liberal-conservative boundaries, and it would be quite interesting to see how the Supremes rule. On the one hand, one does not have to be a critic of the gay rights movement to find fault with the idea of young children being introduced to topics regarding human sexuality, especially topics they cannot possibly grasp at a very young age. On the other hand, American society is clearly moving in a libertarian direction concerning issues of sexuality (witness the almost-complete lack of outrage on the political right over Mary Cheney’s pregnancy), and one wouldn’t be surprised to find some self-identified conservatives actually agreeing with Judge Wolf’s ruling.
- Judge Wolf has not previously struck me as an "activist" judge, which makes his ruling all the more surprising. Perhaps Wolf believed that within 20-25 years, teaching very young children about issues concerning human sexuality will be par for the course in the public (and private and even supposedly religious) schools, thus freeing him from any lasting controversy. He may be right.
- I can’t imagine any of the African-American ministers who used to condemn gay marriage criticizing this ruling. After all, once they backed Governor Deval Patrick, they forfeited all claim to "moral credibility" on these issues. Considering the problems Patrick is having recently, one should ask these ministers: how’s that endorsement working out for you, huh?
SECOND UPDATE: More from the Globe.
February 24th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
I don’t think Wolf’s ruling was incorrect. We have to step back from the specific subject matter the parents were challenging and look at the bigger picture. Realize that these cases are precent-setting. Do you want parents who happen to not care for the fact that Washington and Jefferson were slave-holders in turn going to court to force the school to ban inclusion of such figures in the curriculum? Such things need to be resolved within local governance, good or bad.