Lexington C.A.R.E.S.Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose. Your right to freedom of speech does not allow you to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater. Your right to drive as fast as your car will go is curtailed by speed limits which are set for public safety. In general, the right to do anything that has the potential to harm others, or to conflict with the rights of others, may be constrained for the common good.
I sympathize with the Parker family's (and every family's) desire to guide the moral and religious education of their children. However, they are asking to have their child shielded from any possible discussion of same-sex families by leaving the room before such discussion occurs. This request, is different in a very important way from a request, for example, to have a child excused from a Halloween party, or from saying the Pledge of Allegiance, or from receiving explicit sex education from anyone but the parents.
These latter examples affect only the child in question; the Parkers' request affects all the children in the classroom, because it sends an unmistakable message to all the children that there is something wrong with same-sex families. It is the Parkers' inalienable right to believe that same-sex marriage is immoral, and they are free to tell their child that in their belief system, it is wrong for a child to have two mommies or two daddies. However, it is not their right to insist that the public school accommodate that belief. Their child's walking out whenever the children of same-sex parents talk about their families would certainly humiliate those children and make them feel "different," and would also give other children in the class license to tease or bully them. Again, "your right to swing your fist ends at my nose."
The public school system serves all children. It is obligated to make school a safe and welcoming place for all children so that they can learn. Singling out the children of same-sex families for "shunning," which, in effect, is what the Parkers are asking, would be a violation of that trust.
Edith Sandy
North Emerson Road