The Maryland High School star student has been denied graduation next month because she says her family is religious discrimination.
The students Fox News Digital calls “Jane” for privacy are seniors at Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) who are academically excelled and actively involved in the school. According to her parents and academic records, she is a leader in multiple extracurricular activities at the school, holding a weighted GPA of 4.76 and receiving 1450 (96th percentile) in her SAT.
However, she cannot graduate without completing the forced health course. Her parents say they have “LGBTQ+ affirmations” and “religiously discriminatory” content that they feel opposed because of the deeply held Christian faith.
Jane’s family told Fox News Digital that she has been fighting for more than two years as her daughter is allowed to opt out of course, take alternative classes in private schools, and conduct independent research under the teachers she has chosen to meet this requirement.
Maryland mom fights to opt out of the child from the LGBTQ storybook in front of the Supreme Court
Maryland high school students are told by Montgomery County public schools that they cannot graduate unless they take health classes that contain LGBTQ content, her family says. (istock)
“She is quite distraught that she can’t graduate with all her friends and experience that rite of passage,” her father said.
As Jane’s fourth graders run out of time to complete, their parents file a petition with the Maryland Supreme Court asking them to consider a case against the Montgomery County Board of Education (MCBE).
In August 2022, parents learned that Jane was enrolled in health classes in the second year required to graduate. They recognized that LGBTQ content was incorporated through a year-long course, rather than being limited to the course’s family life and human sexuality units as before.
Screenshots of teacher training documents obtained by parents and shared with Fox News Digital ask for “incorporating a more comprehensive language to review LGBTQ+ resources” throughout the course.
The Teacher Guide also provides teachers with a list of “privileged” and “oppressed” groups of people, named “Christians” and oppressed as “non-Abrahamic religion/spirituality.” The lesson encourages teachers to identify groups of people affected by health inequality, such as “trans or gender-extended,” LGBTQ+, and “people who identify with non-Christian faith.”
According to a professor at White University, marriage promotes “white supremacy.”
The alleged teacher training documents for Maryland High School Health Classes required for graduation debates “privilege” and “oppressed” groups of people. (Photo: Adekunle Ajayi/Getty Images)
Another document they call “Word of Written Words” asks teachers to recognize “white culture of supremacy” in their classrooms and in their homes.
Their petition before the Maryland Supreme Court says they have withdrawn their daughter from upcoming classes, seeking more information about the curriculum. They allege that MCPS rejected requests to display lesson plans and to expel daughters from class.
Parents suggested that Jane take health classes at a local accredited Catholic high school or through independent research supervised by a former teacher in the MCPS system with a health education background.
MCPS rejected these proposals, saying Jane must be taught by current MCPS teachers and must meet requirements through double enrollment in community college courses. Her parents said it was not an option as it was inconsistent with her high school class schedule.
Montgomery County Schools awarded a $450,000 contract to the Diversity Country for “Anti-Racing System Audit”
Maryland parents are fighting the Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education for course graduation requirements that would discriminate against religious students. (Getty Images)
After the school board rejected the request, the parents appealed the administrative decision to Montgomery County Circuit Court in August 2024. In December, the court upheld the school board’s decision, and the parents filed a notice of appeal with the appeal court in January.
Due to the time-sensitive nature of their requests, they petitioned a certificate warrant to the Maryland Supreme Court, but the matter is pending in the Court of Appeal.
Parents argue that MCPS was wrong to affirm LGBTQ+ across their health courses, as this instruction was “restricted to health classes in the Family Life and Human Sexuality (“FLH”) unit (“FLH”) unit and parents have the regulatory rights to allow parents to opt out of their children from that unit.”
“We are not trying to stop teaching MCPS about LGBTQ+ or change their curriculum,” the parents wrote to the Maryland State Board of Education dated March 7, 2024. “We are trying to have MCPS limit some of their family life and human sexuality to parts of their curriculum, which allows MCPS to try to avoid their daughter from their entire daughter if MCPS is allowed to teach LGBTQ+, as teachers’ teaching materials say.
The Supreme Court appears to be on side with parents in the religious freedom conflict over storybooks
Hundreds of parents gathered in June 2023 to protest the Montgomery County Public Schools System’s “no-opt-out” policy for certain LGBTQ+ books approved in the classroom. Their case is currently in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. (Aslanomani)
They were forced to graduate from this class and chose not to transfer their daughters from the district to fight for the rights of all religious students in the district where their families could not afford the costs, transportation and time to attend private or homeschool.
Parents filed another, but related complaints to the school in March over their request for class documents. Their complaints violate Maryland’s public relations law and blame the School Board and MCPS “willfully and intentionally” for withholding public information from them.
The Montgomery County Board of Education and Montgomery County Public Schools declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. The Maryland State Board of Education did not respond to requests for comment.
Montgomery County public schools are currently involved in another well-known religious freedom case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case surrounds a school board that removes “opt-out” for parents trying out LGBTQ storybooks in the classroom.
Montgomery County Public Schools Curriculum Pride Storybook (Bett)
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A coalition of Jewish, Christian and Muslim parents of school-age children filed a lawsuit against the school board. It argues that by forcing young children to participate in leadership against their religious beliefs, it violates religious freedoms protected under the First Amendment.
The Supreme Court heard oral debate on Tuesday in a lawsuit that could set a precedent for parental rights at schools around the country. The conservative majority of the High Court provided strong support to parents presenting religious freedom cases.
