Groups Take Fight Against Lessons to Court

Opponents of new sex education lessons in Montgomery County schools announced yesterday that they have taken their appeal to the courts.

An administrative appeal filed July 26 in Montgomery County Circuit Court signals the escalation of a year-long legal battle over the lessons on sexual orientation, approved in January by the county school board and scheduled to be taught county-wide this fall in eighth- and 10th-grade health classes.

The appeal seeks to reverse a decision the Maryland State Board of Education made in June, when it declined to "second-guess the appropriateness" of the new curriculum materials and found no violation of the law.

Montgomery education leaders have spent five years developing lessons to introduce older students to sexual orientation, a topic that, until field tests in the spring, could be addressed only in response to a student's inquiry. The first set of lessons were challenged on ideological grounds and halted in 2005 by a federal judge, who cited teaching materials critical of religious fundamentalism. New lessons, rewritten from scratch and tightly scripted, have already survived an appeal to the state school board.

A local community group, Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, has led the opposition, saying that the lessons effectively promote homosexual behavior. The Liberty Council, a nationally known litigation group concerned with religious freedom, joined in the 2005 court fight. In the newly filed case, the groups have a different but like-minded ally, the Thomas More Law Center.

"I'm impressed with the principled and steadfast opposition by these pro-family groups to this outrageously hedonistic and life-threatening sexuality curriculum," said Richard Thompson, president of the law center, in a statement dated Wednesday. The center is based in Ann Arbor, Mich.

"The only thing outrageous is the opponents' consistent misrepresentation of what this curriculum actually says and does," said Montgomery schools spokesman Brian Edwards. "The reality is that it provides students with important information that they need to know and teaches the concepts of tolerance and respect for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation."

Michelle Turner, spokeswoman for the local citizens group, said she hoped the courts would "at least put a halt to the implementation this fall of the curriculum" in Montgomery schools. Classes resume Aug. 27.