Supreme Court declines to review case upholding the constitutionality of a student sex survey
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Fields v. Palmdale School District, Docket No. 06-300, upholding the constitutionality of a sex survey given to students. The suit was brought by a group of parents who claimed their constitutional rights were violated when the school district conducted surveys that asked students how often they thought about sex, among other questions. The parents asserted they had the sole right "to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex." However, the Ninth Circuit ruled parents of public school children have no "fundamental right" to be the exclusive provider of sexual information to their children. Two weeks later, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 320-91 to demand the appellate court reconsider the case. The resolution said the court "declared parenting unconstitutional." The court declined to reconsider its ruling, saying in its rejection that, except for the First Amendment's restrictions, "What information schools provide is a matter for the school boards, not the courts, to decide." The school district eliminated the survey in 2002 after complaints from parents. The poll was given to children in the first, third, and fifth grades and was part of a program to gauge exposure to early trauma and to assist in designing a program for children to overcome barriers to learning, according to the district.
Boston Globe
By Associated Press
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Los Angeles Daily News
By Charles S. Bostwick
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[Editor’s Note: A summary of the Ninth Circuit’s opinion, with a link to information on a related case, is posted below.]
[NSBA School Law pages on Fields v. Palmdale Sch. Dist.]