In colonial America the public school system was intended to operate within the philosophical framework of “in loco parentis,” a Latin phrase meaning “in place of the parent.”
Taking root in colonial American schools, “in loco parentis” was an idea derived from English common law. The colonists borrowed it from the English ideal of schools having not only educational but also moral responsibility for students. But colonial America was founded amid a Christian consensus that has fragmented within our current cultural context. This did not happen overnight but it is where we are at now.
BreakPoint, a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, reported, “The National Education Association, which has a long history of advocating extreme, sexually progressive ideology in schools, such as for instance, advising teachers to hide transgender students’ name and pronoun changes from parents. In November, the NEA tweeted: “Educators love their students and know better than anyone what they need to learn and thrive.” Do educators love their students more than the parents love their children?
Last year I wrote an article about this same issue. Parents Wendell and Maria Perez are reportedly filing a lawsuit against the Clay County School District. They were called to the school where their twelve-year-old daughter attempted suicide. The little girl had attempted to kill herself twice in the previous two days. They said the school did not inform them until after the second attempt.
Mr. Perez said, “The school counselor alleged that it [the suicide attempts] was because of a gender identity issue, and that they knew we as parents would not be in agreement because of our Catholic Christian beliefs. My daughter never exhibited any signs of gender confusion or questioning her biological sex.”
This little girl did not attempt to kill herself at home. She tried to kill herself at school after being counseled at school about her “gender identity issue,” which may have been incited by the school counselor. This case highlights the fact that gender identity is not just a gender issue or a moral issue, it is also a life and death issue when pushed on children..
The question at issue is, did the school counselor create in the mind of this twelve-year-old girl a conflict between the counselor’s indoctrination and the parent’s moral instruction at home that in the thinking of the child it could only be reconciled by taking her own life.
This is the kind of situation that The Florida Parental Rights in Education bill was enacted to prevent. Mischaracterized by its opponents as the “don’t say gay” legislation. The bill, “prohibits classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels.” The grade levels are primary grades or children in elementary school.
Sex education is fraught with moral and religious implications that the public school system has been forbidden to teach by various Supreme Court rulings. So, Florida’s legislature has provided that sex education is fundamentally a parental right.
Why is the LGBTQ+ community angry over the legislation? Here’s the rub, people who practice a homosexual lifestyle cannot have children, they cannot be parents in a strictly biological sense. They have no parental rights except for those who have managed to adopt children.
Since homosexuals cannot reproduce, the only way to secure acceptance of their lifestyle they must convert others to their way of thinking by indoctrinating the youngest, most innocent, and vulnerable, our children. And they don’t think parents should have a right to know what is being taught to their children regarding sexual issues.
I will never be convinced that a school employee or the LGBTQ+ community cares more about the welfare of a child than the child’s parents. The right to raise children according to the parents’ values is God-given, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” Ephesians 6:4. Now, thanks to Florida’s legislature and our governor; it will be the law.
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