Don’t say they’re wrong
ADF files suit against misguided Kentucky school board; officials forbid students from telling other students that homosexual behavior is wrongASHLAND, Ky.—Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit today against the Boyd County Board of Education for requiring students to attend unconstitutional “diversity training.” The training instructs students that if they believe homosexual behavior is wrong, they must keep their opinions to themselves.
“This mandatory ‘diversity training’ hardly teaches diversity. It not only puts a gag on students who disagree with homosexual behavior, it also actively attempts to change their moral beliefs,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Kevin Theriot. “The Supreme Court is clear on this matter: Americans have an absolute right to their beliefs. This training obviously crosses that constitutional line.”
All middle and high school students in Boyd County schools are required to attend the “diversity training.” School policies and practice do not permit parents to opt their children out of the training, even if it violates their personal beliefs and morality.
In the training session’s video, school employees and other individuals state that homosexuality is a characteristic that cannot be changed and that school policy prohibits any student from telling another student that he or she believes homosexuality is “wrong.”
According to the complaint filed today, “Students are required to undergo this training without expressing any disagreement. This effectively forces the students to speak in agreement with the School District’s view that homosexuality is a safe and healthy lifestyle that cannot be changed.” To read the full text of the complaint, go to www.alliancedefensefund.org/UserDocs/MorrisonComplaint.pdf.
ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit, Timothy Allen Morrison, II, et al., v. Board of Education of Boyd County, Kentucky, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Ashland Division, on behalf of students and parents who object to the mandatory “diversity training.” The training began as the result of the settlement of another lawsuit filed against the Boyd County Board of Education by the Boyd County High School Gay-Straight Alliance, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“No settlement arrangement can violate the First Amendment rights of students,” Theriot explained. “Whatever the provisions are, they must be consistent with the Constitution.”
ADF is America’s largest legal alliance defending religious liberty through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
