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Montgomery County principals concerned over school books with LGBTQ characters

2023-08-02 00:00:00.0 华盛顿邮报-华盛顿特区原网页

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Last fall, a group of Montgomery County elementary school principals sent a letter to school district leaders with concerns that books new to the language arts curriculum that included LGBTQ characters were teaching young students about sexual orientation and gender identity even though district leaders said they weren’t, according to emails reviewed by The Washington Post.

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“It has been communicated that MCPS is not teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity as stand alone concepts in elementary school,” some of the principals wrote in a document sent in November. “However, several of the books and supporting documents seemingly contradict this message.”

The document surfaced last month as a part of an open records request by the Council on American-Islamic Relations that was shared with The Post. Staff from CAIR’s Maryland office have been part of a group of demonstrators calling on Maryland’s largest school district to instate an “opt-out” provision for the books.

“This memo that elementary school principals sent to the school district leaders back in the fall I think is critical from a legal perspective and also a policy perspective, because what they are laying out are all the things that parents have been saying,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy director.

The letter was sent by the elementary cabinet chair of the Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals — a union representing about 800 school administrators — to school officials including the district’s chief academic officer and associate superintendent of curriculum and instructional programs.

How the fight against LGBTQ+ books in Montgomery County became a national issue

Christine Handy, the president of MCAAP, said in an email Tuesday: “The purpose of this white paper was to honor our member’s voices and to be partners with MCPS by providing feedback.” She did not answer additional questions because of a pending lawsuit involving the books.

Chief among the principals’ concerns was that the books included in the supplemental curriculum were not “appropriate for the intended age group, or in one case, not appropriate at all for young students.” Montgomery schools rolled out the books around October. They are intended as optional texts that teachers can read in the classroom, alongside other texts offered through the school system’s curriculum provider. The books and the school system’s refusal for an exemption have led to numerous protests in the county that have garnered national attention while a broader battle over parental rights and the way schools teach about gender and sexuality is underway.

The book, “My Rainbow,” — a story about a mother who makes a colorful wig for her transgender daughter — uses the terms transgender and cisgender, but does not explain the terminology, the principals said in the letter. They added that “family life isn’t taught until fifth grade” but the book would introduce those terms to students at a younger grade level. With the book “Love Violet” — a story about a girl who develops a crush on her classmate and contemplates how to create a card for her for Valentine’s Day, the principals wrote that it is “problematic to portray elementary school age children falling in love with other children, regardless of sexual preferences.” The letter details similar concerns with five of the books.

Chris Cram, a spokesperson for the school district, said the document contained “gathered observations of a few system principals and shouldn’t be considered comprehensive.”

“There were many official messages and opportunities we call Principal Office Hours where principals could ask direct questions to support school leaders to fully understand the rollout, the expected use, and implementation,” Cram said in an email.

The president of the Montgomery County Education Association — the union representing teachers — has previously spoken at a school board meeting in favor of the books and against an opt-out.

Montgomery County school officials have said that the books involved are age and developmentally appropriate. It has prohibited students from being pulled out of the classroom when the books are read, citing in part that Maryland law only allows students to “opt-out” for a specific unit in the state’s health education framework around family life and human sexuality, and the books are a part of an English Language Arts curriculum. A spokesperson from the Maryland State Department of Education has similarly given that analysis of the state law.

A group of families filed a lawsuit against the school system in May that could test the argument in court. They allege the school system is violating their religious freedoms guaranteed under the First Amendment by not allowing an exemption because the material covered overlaps with areas of their faith. Oral arguments begin Aug. 9, and families suing the school system have asked a judge to rule on an order that could allow a temporary opt-out ahead of the first day of school, Aug. 28, while the case works through the courts.

Attorneys from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — the organization representing those families — have incorporated the document detailing some of the principals’ concerns as a part of the lawsuit. Mitchell from CAIR said the organization shared the document with the attorneys, but the organization is not more directly involved with the case.

In the letter, the elementary school principals also highlighted their concerns with a script the school system provided educators to navigate questions and comments that may arise from students. One of the examples includes a student saying, “Being ___ (gay, lesbian queer, etc) is wrong and not allowed in my religion.” In the script, school staff are offered the suggestive response of, “I understand that is what you believe, but not everyone believes that. We don’t have to understand a person’s identity to treat then (sic) with respect and kindness.” The principals’ concern was that the response was “dismissive of religious beliefs.”

Eva Goldfarb, a professor of public health at Montclair State University and researcher on sex education, reviewed the principals’ document and read four of the books — “Born Ready,” “Love Violet,” “Pride Puppy,” and “My Rainbow,” all of which she found to be developmentally appropriate.

“It is about understanding people who students may not know or who may be different from them,” she said, noting that inclusion and acceptance were “exactly the point” of all the books she read.

Montgomery families seek temporary opt-out of LGBTQ+ storybooks

Even though some education and public health experts have found such content is developmentally appropriate for young students, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted in 2022 found that most Maryland voters don’t support public school teachers discussing acceptance of LGBTQ people with elementary school students. By more than 2 to 1 (66 percent to 30 percent), more registered voters said it was inappropriate rather than appropriate for teachers to discuss acceptance of LGBTQ people with students in kindergarten through third grade. For students in grades 4 and 5, 40 percent of voters said the discussions were appropriate, and 56 percent said it was inappropriate. However, a majority of Maryland voters do support teachers having those conversations at the middle and high school grades.

The principals also wrote they were worried that teachers had not been trained on the use of the books and the conversations it could spark in the classroom, and that there needed to be “a more robust, inclusive, public-facing process that includes deliberate attempts to include administrators, teachers, and parents as stakeholders.”

Cram, the district spokesman, highlighted how some of the concerns were addressed. Starting in the summer and through the fall, training was provided to reading specialists, counselors and media specialists, he said. There was also a “train the trainer” series in which some staff at schools were trained on how to use the books and then took that training back to their schools to teach other staffers, Cram said. Principals also participated in some trainings on implementing the books.

The books have been discussed in public school board meetings, Cram said, and information about them has been sent home from schools for families and is on the school system’s website.

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