| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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That tell the American story. | |
| This weekend, the 2025 White House Correspondents Association dinner is Saturday. | ||
| Over the years, former presidents have attended the annual event. | ||
| American History TV will feature many of those past speeches beginning at 12.45 p.m. Eastern. | ||
| Then at 8 p.m. Eastern on Lectures in History, American University professor Laura Beers on Winston Churchill and the special relationship between Great Britain and the U.S. during World War II and the Cold War. | ||
| At 9.30 on the presidency, a discussion about John Adams' political philosophy and his influence on the U.S. Constitution, especially on the separation of powers and checks and balances. | ||
| At 10.30 p.m. Eastern following Pope Francis' death, we'll air his address to a joint meeting of Congress in 2015. | ||
| The first pontiff in history to address both chambers. | ||
| And at 11.15 p.m. on the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, we'll look at the April 29th, 1975 announcement by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on the end of the Vietnam War and the loss and evacuation of Saigon. | ||
| Exploring the American story. | ||
| Watch American History TV Saturdays on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org slash history. | ||
| Two and a half hours, the justice has heard this argument. | ||
| You can still see that argument, by the way, in its entirety if you go to our website, our special page dedicated to Supreme Court matters, in which this case was heard yesterday by the justices of the Supreme Court, the Washington Post reporting on some of the exchanges that took place during that time, saying the lawsuit over storytime and books with such titles as Uncle Bobby's Wedding and Love Violet has implications for public schools nationwide. | ||
| It is one of the three major religious right cases on the dock at this term for the Supreme Court. | ||
| At issue is whether public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland illegally burdened the First Amendment rights of parents to freely exercise their religion when children are required to participate in discussions touching on gender and sexuality that conflict with their parents' faith. | ||
| During more than the two and a half hours of argument, the justices made clear that they had studied the storybooks in question. | ||
| Several read aloud from disputed texts, some of which referred to drag queens and same-sex marriage. | ||
| Conservative justice repeatedly pressed Alan Schoenfeld, the lawyer for the school system, on why it could not easily accommodate the rights of religious parents. | ||
| There's more to that story. | ||
| Again, you can see that entire argument concerning this case. | ||
| But when we asking you this morning, when it comes to this idea of an opt-out for the reading of these books to school-aged children, do you support that idea of an opt-out or do you oppose it? | ||
| If you support it, it's 202-748-8000, the number to call, and 202-748-8001. | ||
| If you oppose it, it was yesterday at the court that during the arguments that Justice Brett Kavanaugh pressed the attorney representing Montgomery County, the school system, the public school system, to explain why they believe that opt-out notices for these type of instruction were not feasible. | ||
| Here's part of that exchange from yesterday. | ||
| The county had an opt-out, you said. | ||
| Every other school board in the country has opt-outs for all sorts of things. | ||
| The county has opt-outs for all sorts of things. | ||
| The other Maryland counties have opt-outs for all sorts of things. | ||
| And yet, for this one thing, they change in mid-year and say no more opt-outs. | ||
| I'm just not understanding feasibility. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, again, I think what's in the record is that with respect to these books, as they were deployed in the classroom, there was high absenteeism in some schools. | |
| For example, dozens of students being opted out in. | ||
| I think Mr. Baxter said the average size of an elementary school in Montgomery County is 700 students. | ||
| So each grade is 125 if you have dozens of students walking out. | ||
| Making arrangements for those students to have adequate space and supervision and alternative instruction, I think, is infeasible. | ||
| They do it for all sorts of other opt-outs. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They don't do it for all sorts of other opt-outs. | |
| There's a limited universe of things that students can opt out from. | ||
| The Family Life and Healthy Sexuality Curriculum stands alone. | ||
| It is mandated by the state. | ||
| It is something where you are able to predict precisely when the curriculum is going to be deployed. | ||
| There's a four. | ||
| It's the most similar, substantively, to what we have here, and there's an opt-out allowed there. | ||
| I guess I'm not understanding why Montgomery County School Board stands alone. | ||
| I think in the country, you can tell me if there's another school board that's done something like this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't know. | |
| The kind of books that are being used and prohibiting opt-outs. | ||
| And I guess I'm just not understanding. | ||
| The whole goal, I think, of some of our religion precedents is to look for the win-win, to look for the situation where you can respect the religious beliefs and accommodate the religious beliefs while the state or city or whatever it may be can pursue its goals. | ||
| And here, they're not asking you to change what's taught in the classroom. | ||
| They're not asking you to change that at all. | ||
| A lot of the rhetoric suggests that they might have, that they were trying to do that, but that's not what they're trying to do. | ||
| They're only seeking to be able to walk out so that they don't have to, the parents don't have their children exposed to these things that are contrary to their own beliefs. | ||
| Again, that was part of the arguments that took place at the Supreme Court. | ||
| This idea of a religious opt-out for LGBTQ plus books in public schools and lessons taught from them. | ||
| If you support that idea of an opt-out, 202748-8000, if you oppose that, 202748-8001, you can text us your thoughts at 202-748-8003. | ||
| And available to you also to post your thoughts. | ||
| You can do that on Facebook and on X. Rebecca in Arkansas, a supporter of this idea of an opt-out. | ||
| Rebecca, good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I support it because I do not think parents should, if they don't want their young children exposed to this, they should have, that's up to them. | ||
| The children, this shouldn't be forced upon young children. | ||
| It's obscene. | ||
| That's right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I think they have every right to not expose their young children to this. | |
| It's just not right at all. | ||
| Rebecca there in Arkansas giving her thoughts this morning a little bit more about the case, saying the parents in the case that have children in the public schools in Montgomery County, which is the Washington, D.C. suburbs, and is one of the most religiously diverse counties in the United States. | ||
| They include Tamar Mahmoud and Enos Barakot, who are Muslim, Melissa and Chris Persak, who are Roman Catholic, and Svetlana and Jeff Roman, who are Ukrainian Orthodox and Roman Catholics. | ||
| It was in 2022 that the county school board approved books featuring LGBTQ characters for its use in language arts curriculum. | ||
| One book describes the story of a girl attending her uncle's same-sex wedding, for example, while another book, Pride Puppy, tells the story of a puppy that gets lost during a pride parade. | ||
| It was the following year that the board announced it would no longer allow parents to excuse their children from extruding using the LGBTQ-themed storybooks. | ||
| That prompted parents in this case to go to federal court, where they argue that the board's refusal to allow them to opt their children out violated their rights under the First Amendment to freely exercise their religion because it stripped them of their ability to instruct their children on issues of gender and sexuality according to their respective faiths and to control how and when their children are exposed to these issues. | ||
| Another viewer on our support line, this is James in Virginia. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, Pedro, good morning. | |
| I just don't see why this evening is a conversation. | ||
| You've got 1% of the population that wants their books read in school. | ||
| Why don't we give the same platform to a hate group or terrorist group? | ||
| This doesn't even make sense. | ||
| Well, specifically, what's wrong with the idea of reading these books to children? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, I don't understand it. | |
| I've got a little boy and a little girl in school, a boy and a girl. | ||
| They're not LBTQ. | ||
| They don't need to be taught that or read books about something they don't even understand. | ||
| I mean, you got to be 21 to buy a pack of cigarettes, but we're going to teach kids in school, middle school, about sexuality. | ||
| That doesn't even make sense. | ||
| I mean, I don't. | ||
| Why don't we teach them about hate? | ||
| Why don't we teach them about terrorists? | ||
| So hold on, hold on. | ||
| But as far as the opt-out option, then that would be fine to you if they have the ability to opted out of this kind of instruction. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It should not be in our school system at all, Pedro, is what I'm saying. | |
| So I need to pull my kid out of school because the teacher decides to read a book that 1% of the population believes in. | ||
| Think about that for a second. | ||
| So you're going to pull your kid out of school that you pay taxes on because a teacher decides that she wants to read a book about LBTQ to your kid. | ||
| So you've got the inconvenience. | ||
| Instead of your teacher teaching math, reading and writing, you're going to teach them about sexuality. | ||
| I mean, why are we even having this conversation? | ||
| This is the most ludicrous. | ||
| Why is that even in front of the Supreme Court? | ||
| Where's the common sense to this, Pedro? | ||
| Okay, okay, okay. | ||
| Let's go to Timothy and Maryland opposing this idea of an opt-out. | ||
| Timothy, you're next up. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's not that I oppose it. | |
| No one listened to what Kavanaugh said a while ago. | ||
| I don't want my kids and I know about homosexual three or four years old either. | ||
| But the fact that every other state in the nation always had the opt-outs, kids who leave the classroom. | ||
| And I don't think nobody should be teaching them books even to know three or four years old because a child don't know better. | ||
| A parent know better. | ||
| But for this to go to the Supreme Court, a parent should just take their kids out of class at that time and not read the book. | ||
| And the school shouldn't be teaching the kids. | ||
| Well, then you're calling in on our, though, you oppose the opt-out option. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Specifically, why is that? | |
| I oppose it. | ||
| It's already been in effect. | ||
| You can take the kid out of class if you don't want them to read a certain language, certain book. | ||
| It's already in effect. | ||
| This is not about a thing focused on publicity, some publicity. | ||
| That's all it is. | ||
| A since the woke thing came out, you've been in L mode because you've been in L mode. | ||
| Test me speaks already. | ||
| Sesame Suits been around for kids for years. | ||
| Okay, Tim there in Timothy and Waldorf, Maryland. | ||
| You heard from Brett Kavanaugh, it was Justice Elena Kagan. | ||
| She talking to the attorney and asking questions of the attorney that were representing the parents in this case. | ||
| And specifically, the idea of exactly what they think an opt-out notice would be, when it would be required. | ||
| Here's Elena Kagan from the argument yesterday. | ||
| What I'm hearing you saying is the burden is basically up to the parent to decide this conflicts with my religious beliefs. | ||
| I want an opt-out. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| And on the Sherbert side, under strict scrutiny, they would have to first show that there is a law that's not neutral or generally applicable, so there's a limit there. | ||
| And on the Yoder side, if this court didn't want to go all the way to address the issues that aren't present in this case, it could rely on the uniquely coercive environment of the schools. | ||
| And now putting those kinds of issues in the burden size. | ||
| Still, it's like just pretty, I mean, I'm really searching for something, and I know that you realize that, and you're still not giving me anything other than if it's in a school and a sincere religious parent has an objection, that objection is always going to result in an opt-out. | ||
| That's right. | ||
| No matter what the instruction is like, no matter what the materials are, no matter how old the kids are. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And that's the rule that schools everywhere in the country are working under right now by their own choice. | |
| That was Montgomery County's own rule before this lawsuit came in. | ||
| And there were never these kinds of problems until it really introduced a curriculum that was clearly indoctrinating students. | ||
| And things that the principal said was introducing things as fact that aren't. | ||
| Yeah, but once we articulate a rule like that, you're going to have a lot of parents, it seems to me. | ||
| I don't think you can say just because it hasn't happened. | ||
| Once we say something like what you are asking us to say, it'll be like, you know, opt-outs for everyone. | ||
| Again, that full Supreme Court argument available on our website at cspan.org. | ||
| A previous viewer asked why this was before the Supreme Court in the first place. | ||
| The website SCOTUS blog, which covers all things Supreme Court, has this to offer when it comes to that, saying that the lower courts refused to temporarily require the school board to notify the parents when the storybooks would be used and give them a chance to opt their children out of instruction. | ||
| A federal appeals court reasoned that on the quote threadbare, and that's in quote, facts before it, the parents had not demonstrated that exposing their children to the storybooks compelled the parents to violate their religion. | ||
| So to this idea of support or opposing LGBTQ plus books being used in instruction, where do you stand on it if you support that idea of an opt-out for parents on religious or other grounds? | ||
| 202748-8000. | ||
| If you oppose it, 202748-8001. | ||
| Some of you posting on Facebook to give your thoughts there saying that this is Sue from Whiting, New Jersey. | ||
| She's actually texting us, saying allowing people to, quote, opt out because of religious beliefs is a slippery slope. | ||
| Parents wanting to opt out of having their children vaccinated due to religious beliefs, for example, could potentially endanger other students. | ||
| However, any material introduced to students should strive to be age-appropriate and endorsed by school boards and made aware to parents. | ||
| Again, texting us as an option too if you want to do that. | ||
| 202748-8003. | ||
| Tina's up next. | ||
| She's in Maryland. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I support having an opt-out because when I went to school, they had where when you had sex education, your parents had to sign. | ||
| I have a transgender in my family. | ||
| I have no problem with it, but I don't think I should explain his choices between three and ten because they're too young to understand. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They struggle with just understanding being three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. | |
| Those are things I don't get them involved in paying my credit cards. | ||
| Those are things I feel should be addressed later in life. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Tina there in Michigan on our support line. | ||
| You've noticed that we've divided the lines, support and oppose for you to give your thoughts this morning. | ||
| Brian in Illinois, also on our support line. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning, Pedro. | |
| I watched a good deal of that Q ⁇ A yesterday. | ||
| Thank you for providing that telecast. | ||
| And it seems like the case, and this is my introduction to the case, I plead ignorance, but it seemed that this case is along the lines of religious expression and not just parents' wish for what their kids are exposed to in school. | ||
| And I support the opt-out on both counts because I believe the parents ought to be able to guard their children, even in a school classroom, from stuff that they think is not age appropriate or otherwise inappropriate for their child to experience. | ||
| If they don't have that power over their kids' lives, even in school, then I think we're heading down a bad road. | ||
| And I would never leave parenting duties to any of the teacher my child has had, my grandchild has had, or my great-grandson who's going to be in kindergarten next year. | ||
| And when I think of having to have a conversation with him at his level of maturity or immaturity and his readiness for drag queen story hour or any of these other things that seem outlandish to my view to expose young children to. | ||
| And definitely, it seems in an effort in this case and in case of the things like drag queen story hours, an attempt to indoctrinate kids that aren't yours, that this is perfectly normal when not all of us see it that way. | ||
| And we don't want our kids exposed to it at that age. | ||
| And that sums up my point of view. | ||
| Brian, before we let you go, quickly, what did you think about the quality of the arguments both sides brought to the case? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I thought the guy that represented the school district was well spoken and his arguments seemed to have merit. | |
| I just think the school district's argument in general is flawed in the way I described. | ||
| It does not take into view the fact that parents should be able, again, in my view, and apparently in the view of the people that brought the suit, that they should have more control than what's being afforded them by this school district over what their kids are exposed to. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Brian, there in Illinois. | ||
| Again, he watched the case. | ||
| You can do the same on our website at cspan.org, our app at C-SPANNow. | ||
| Two and a half hours of argument brought this case, one of three cases that the court will hear when it comes to religious expression and freedoms. | ||
| Lisa in Ohio, opposing this idea of an opt-out. | ||
| Lisa, hi there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| So I have kids, and I'm very familiar with Montgomery County. | ||
| It's extremely diverse, not just religiously, but my kids have had many friends with same-sex parents. | ||
| Starting in preschool, my daughter's best friend through elementary school had same-sex parents. | ||
| My daughter in middle school had a transgender teacher. | ||
| Your kids are exposed to it. | ||
| And it's not fair for the child who is going through that to have to explain it to her peers. | ||
| And that's where the teacher steps in so that all the kids understand. | ||
| And, you know, the child doesn't feel isolated. | ||
| And just, it's not at that age, they, you know, they don't have the tools to explain themselves. | ||
| And so that's where the teacher comes in and supports the child through these books and through, you know, discussing it in an age-appropriate way. | ||
| You can't stop your kids from what's really going on in the world. | ||
| You can't protect them from everything. | ||
| What do you think about this idea of this case being brought forth on religious freedoms and aspects of when it comes to the parents? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I feel like religious freedoms are forced upon everybody. | |
| Like we, we have to, they want us to accept all of their rights and their beliefs, but they don't want to accept anyone else. | ||
| They're inflexible in that part. | ||
| They want us to pray in school and they want us to, you know, inflict God in everything. | ||
| And they, you know, they're against abortion, like even though, you know, we may not be religious. | ||
| They want all of their rules to apply and none of anyone else's to apply. | ||
| So I just think it's unfair. | ||
| I think kids should be exposed to it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, they are exposed to it. | |
| You can't protect them. | ||
| Lisa there in Columbus, Ohio, giving us her thoughts this morning. | ||
| You can continue on doing the same on the lines. | ||
| The USA Today takes a look at some of the books that were brought up as part of this case. | ||
| You can find this story at their website saying the book Intersection Allies features nine kids from different backgrounds, including Alejandra, who uses a wheelchair while playing basketball, Adelia, who wears a hijab in ballet class, and Kate, who prefers a super cape to, quote, skirts and frills. | ||
| In Uncle Bobby's wedding, Chloe's favorite uncle gets married to another man. | ||
| Quote, I've read so many comments talking about sex being inappropriate in books for kindergartens, author Sarah Brandon said in an interview with PEN America, a writers and free expression group: quote, there's no sex in my book. | ||
| It's a story about a family that ends with everyone dancing at a wedding. | ||
| The story also shows the cover of one of the books in question, Pride Puppy, by Robin Stevenson, Julie McLaughlin, saying that in that alphabet primer, Pride Puppy children chases their dogs to a pride parade. | ||
| Their parents who sued complained the book, quote, invites students barely old enough to tie their own shoes to search for images that include underwear, leather, and lip ring. | ||
| The school says parents are trying to give a salacious bent to objects like a leather jacket. | ||
| But since the lawsuit began, Montgomery County has stopped using Pride Puppy, as well as My Rainbow, a book about a mom who makes a rainbow-colored wig for her transgender daughter. | ||
| That's some of the books in question. | ||
| There's a picture of some of the covers when it comes to the books. | ||
| These are what the books that centered in that case that the Supreme Court heard yesterday. | ||
| This is Jake in Maryland up next. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I guess I would say that I would oppose this. | |
| Oppose, sorry, excuse me, I would be for the opting out. | ||
| And I would also say that I would oppose it being totally focused on religious reasons. | ||
| And I would think that the ability for parents to weigh in as it pertains to what is exposed to their children is very important. | ||
| And while I empathize with the last caller that spoke about having folks that are part of the LGBTQ plus community, as I do myself, I would also say that I'm not sure that it's the place of this to be, I guess, enforced or encouraged in schools. | ||
| And I would also say that what was offered by the Ohio caller earlier was very that I'm directly in support of that as it pertains to the various points that he offered. | ||
| The one part as it pertains to the arguments back and forth, because I've also been listening closely on the way to and from work yesterday and today and just Reading about this at night, I would just say that part of the argument back about how folks get a chance to weigh in when they're electing their school board officials. | ||
| I'm not sure that that's totally adequate, but I did also hear reference to different recourse they may have if certain curriculum books are added to the curriculum that they do not agree with, but I didn't get a chance to really research that yet. | ||
| Okay, again, this case centered in Montgomery County, Mary, not too far from Washington, D.C. Our next call is from Nissa in Greenbelt, Maryland, who opposes an idea of an opt-out. | ||
| Nissa in Greenbelt, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Excuse me. | ||
| It's Nisa, like Lisa. | ||
| Oh, sorry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just wanted to make two points. | |
| Oh, no problem. | ||
| So I'm an educator. | ||
| I'm a parent. | ||
| I am also an attorney and advocate. | ||
| I teach in Prince George's County Public Schools, which is right next to Montgomery County, and we often share policies. | ||
| Let me just make two points, having been down there yesterday. | ||
| The opt-out is a problem. | ||
| The reason why the opt-out is a problem is because this is simply a veiled attempt by people who want to essentially apply private room schools or imply, or I should say, enforce school choice where there's not a school choice option. | ||
| Sonia Sunga Mayor, Justice Sotomayor, made an excellent point yesterday when she said, Well, what if the teacher in the class is married to same-sex person? | ||
| They would have wedding photos and families. | ||
| That's exposure. | ||
| So, what they were doing was they kept trying to make exposure and indoctrination the same thing. | ||
| I will just say this as a teacher: if parents really think that we have the power to indoctrinate children through curriculum, then we would have the highest test scores on the face of this earth. | ||
| I can repeat, write, and put on a computer instruction four times. | ||
| And I will still have students, smart students, ask me what did I just say? | ||
| They are not being indoctrinated in any way. | ||
| The second point that I wanted to make was I was slightly disappointed in, let me rephrase my words. | ||
| Yesterday, of course, opposing sides were able to protest, and the opt-out opposing the opt-out side, the LGBT plus community, was out there. | ||
| And it was a lovely display of rainbow and color and all those things. | ||
| But that's the problem. | ||
| So many parents think that that's what exposure to same-sex or LGBTQ issues looks like. | ||
| It is not always a drag show. | ||
| And I'm slightly disappointed to see that I didn't really see a strong presence from organizations such as the Human Rights Organization and other pro-LGBT plus communities to dispel misinformation. | ||
| So the party was lovely. | ||
| My students, we went, they enjoyed watching both of the protests, but I felt like there should have been a stronger, more forceful, and probably I can't choose the right word, but I would have liked to see another set of representatives from the LGBT plus community. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Nisa, there in Maryland, another Marylander. | ||
| This is Mark in Hampstead on our support line. | ||
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning. | |
| So I agree with the opt-out option. | ||
| I would take it further. | ||
| I would point out that Les Challer, who claimed she was a lawyer, it's funny how people who are cultural Marxists love using words like misinformation. | ||
| You know, the thing is, is kind of like another lefty idea of sex education in school, which they started in the late 60s. | ||
| You know, venereal diseases had been going down among young people throughout the 1950s. | ||
| It wasn't until they started doing sex education in school that venereal diseases started back on the rise as soon as they started sex education. | ||
| Now, the last teller also mentioned that teachers are not indoctrinating students. | ||
| Well, let's look at the actual numbers. | ||
| Why is it that almost 40% of teenage girls in middle school and early high school now identify as non-binary? | ||
| When this was not even an issue 10 years ago, it was less than 1%. | ||
| It has increased by 400% in the last few years. | ||
| This is a social contagion. | ||
| And it's part of a concerted effort on the teachers' union and these woke school boards to, you know, you have to ask yourself, and I don't even know why this case would make it to any court. | ||
| What I want to know is why aren't they arresting these teachers? | ||
| Any adult who wants to talk to a child about sex should be suspect. | ||
| Like, why did they want to do this so bad? | ||
| And why did they keep pushing doing these drag shows in school and acting like the exception is the norm? | ||
| You know, the fact is, is there are a couple thousand people who are born with nine fingers every year. | ||
| But when we teach biology, we teach kids that human beings are born with 10 fingers and 10 toes. | ||
| There are exceptions. | ||
| The problem with the left is they always try and make the exception the rule. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
When I was in school, I didn't know if my teacher was married or not. | |
| I didn't know anything about their personal life. | ||
| They were there to teach, not indoctrinate. | ||
| Okay, Mark there in Maryland. | ||
| Again, this case stemming from a school system, Montgomery County, Maryland, being heard before the Supreme Court. | ||
| Some of you calling in saying you had a chance to listen and monitor the case from yesterday. | ||
| You can give your thoughts on this idea of an opt-out when it comes to the use of these type of storybooks and instruction. | ||
| 202748-8000. | ||
| If you support that idea, if you oppose that idea, 202748-8001. | ||
| Some of you posting on our Facebook page. | ||
| This is Vicki Mayfield saying, why are they pushing these books? | ||
| I think they instead should have a quote opt-in. | ||
| And then Jason Toft also from Facebook saying that people that ban or burn books always end up on the wrong side of history, wrong in all capitals, by the way. | ||
| Bo in California, on our opposed line, you're next up on this idea of an opt-out. | ||
| Bo, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning, Pedro. | |
| You know, the problem is this opt-out is requiring, and I watched the case too. | ||
| It really focuses on there having to be a religious purpose. | ||
| And I don't think it should be there at all. | ||
| I mean, frankly, whether I'm religious or not, I don't want my kids hearing about this kind of stuff at school. | ||
| It's morally inept and evil to try and push this upon young children. | ||
| And I agree with many of your callers. | ||
| It shouldn't even be a Supreme Court case. | ||
| It should not be in the kids' purview. | ||
| Well, you're calling on our line for the idea of those who oppose an opt-out option. | ||
| Could you elaborate on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, that's my point: is we shouldn't even have to opt out. | |
| And this opt-out is just for religious purposes. | ||
| What if I don't want to go in and say I'm a Christian or Muslim or anything? | ||
| I just don't want my children learning about this kind of stuff at school. | ||
| They shouldn't even be talked about these things. | ||
| That's Bo there in California giving us his thoughts this morning. | ||
| By the way, if you go to Cato's website, the Cato Institute, they have a map taking a look at some of these ideas of arguments that are taking place across the United States and states dealing with various education issues to show you just the green dots that are represented on this map. | ||
| These are the cases specifically or the instances specifically dealing with the idea of reading material being at the center of concern for parents who are part of that. | ||
| So if you look at that, there are other options too, but just to give you an idea of how widespread across the United States when it comes to reading material alone, this topic, this case specifically dealt with LGBTQ storybooks being used as a part of instruction. | ||
| Again, more there at our website if you want to see the case and hear the arguments on our support line. | ||
| John, John, and Virginia, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, I'd like to echo the thought that one of your textures put in. | |
| This should not be an opt-out issue. | ||
| We just had an election, and the majority of the people in this country are not in line with a small percentage that want to force their ideas on the rest of us. | ||
| So if it's a real litmus test, let's do a program and opt in for all of these ideas that are on the fringe. | ||
| And let's see how many people opt their children into this type of learning environment. | ||
| I guarantee you, the lefties and then the people pushing this garbage won't like the idea because it's going to be a small class. | ||
| Have a great day. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| The New York Times features an op-ed by Megan Stack, an opinion writer, a contributing writer. | ||
| Her home is in Montgomery County, Maryland. | ||
| The title of the op-ed, My School District Could Have Avoided the Supreme Court case, writing about the case that was heard yesterday. | ||
| She says, I can't decide which concede is more delusional. | ||
| The school district grandstanding about social tolerance while forcing a minority of religious families to engage with books they consider immoral or the religious parents claiming they can't properly rear their children in faith if the kids get exposed to a few picture books. | ||
| Both positions, it seems to me, rest on a cartoonishly inflated sense of schools' influence on children and both seek an ideologically purified classroom. | ||
| We're underestimating the sweep of ideas and information kids absorb simply by existing in our world. | ||
| Most of all, I feel our community's failure to resolve a thoroughly predictable tension with time-tested tools of straight talk, compromise, and extending one another a little grace has made for a demoralizing spectacle. | ||
| And I can't help but notice that our district and its clumsy efforts to force tolerance might have given the Supreme Court an opening to repress LGBTQ-related speech in the nation's schools. | ||
| There's more there by that author. | ||
| The New York Times is where you can find it. | ||
| Again, there's a picture of some of the books that were in question before the justices of the Supreme Court. | ||
| On our opposed line, this is Elise in Oregon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| And thank you, C-SPAN, and for taking my call. | ||
| I'm a 70-year-old white female, and I oppose opt-out for religious freedom. | ||
| LGBTQ does not have anything to do with religion. | ||
| And the reason that these programs should be required is too many parents indoctrinate their children at home, and they are not exposed to diverse ideas. | ||
| And this is about diversity and inclusion that will hopefully lead to more social equality. | ||
| And I agree that we need to have more inclusion. | ||
| So if some kids don't go to the program and others do, the kids are going to be talking about it in their classes. | ||
| And I think story time is a perfect way to talk about diverse ideas. | ||
| And I wrote a letter about this when I live in Florida, opposing book bans, opposing not teaching kids. | ||
| That's how hatred continues. | ||
| Too many people are siloed in their homes. | ||
| And it's public schools that offer the diversity. | ||
| So thank you. | ||
| And I did watch the whole hearing and I agree that a very small group of right-wing religious believers should not dictate for the rest of the country. | ||
| Elisa, if I may ask, several people call again saying they watched the hearing. | ||
| What prompted you to watch the hearing? | ||
| Did you hear about it otherwise? | ||
| Or what prompted you to watch the whole thing? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I watch almost all the Supreme Court hearings. | |
| I write letters. | ||
| I'm an activist. | ||
| And this is so crucial to our young children to learn about different ideas. | ||
| And when our Supreme Court is siding with a small group of parents, I don't think they're being fair. | ||
| Gotcha. | ||
| Elise in Oregon, thank you. | ||
| Again, Elise, one of the many people calling this morning saying they watched the whole case. | ||
| I've told you this before. | ||
| I'll tell you this again. | ||
| If you want to go to our website at c-span.org, that's where we keep like an archive of the key course cases that the court hears. | ||
| Audio provided to us from the Supreme Court. | ||
| We put the pictures of the various people who are talking. | ||
| That way you get a sense of the dynamics and the back and forth of the questioning that takes place when the court hears these matters. | ||
| This case specifically on our website, too, if you want to catch it there at c-span.org. | ||
| Georgia, this is Will on our support line. | ||
| Hi, Will. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, how you doing, Pedro? | |
| Fine, thank you. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, this is my first time in college, Pedro. | |
| But what are we talking about here? | ||
| I support parents' right to not have their kids subjected to those type of books. | ||
| But whether they're subjected to it or not, if they're going to be gay, they're going to be gay anyway. | ||
| It was gay people way before those books was written. | ||
| And it's going to be gay people if they smash them off the shelves or whatever they do, like they do during the history books. | ||
| It was gay people in Rome. | ||
| I mean, what we need to be talking about is taking history books off the shelves. | ||
| Because if a society don't remember their history, they're bound to repeat it. | ||
| And these things we talk about is mediocre. | ||
| If a parent don't want their kids to read a certain type of book, I agree with that. | ||
| Totally. | ||
| I agree with that. | ||
| But because they don't read that book when they five, six, eight, nine, ten, eleven years old, that don't mean they're not going to be gay when they get 20 or 21. | ||
| Will there in Georgia giving us his thoughts? | ||
| Again, this court, this case going through the lower courts before reaching the Supreme Court when the justices heard it yesterday, one of the exchanges featured Justice Katanji Brown Jackson. | ||
| She questioned whether allowing the opt-outs to go forward would expand the parents' ability to object to other perspectives inside of schools, even that beyond the curriculum. | ||
| Here's some of that exchange from yesterday. | ||
| Is your argument actually confined to the content of the school's curriculum? | ||
| I mean, I appreciate that you say we're in the public school. | ||
| This is a uniquely coercive environment. | ||
| But what if we have a teacher who is gay and has a photo of a wedding on her desk? | ||
| Is a parent able or could they opt out of having their student be in that classroom? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we think no because the student, you know, the student may have a, may claim a burden, but on the question of the student doesn't have the right to tell a teacher what to say, the teacher has speech rights. | |
| But I guess I don't understand that given your argument. | ||
| I mean, so, you know, example one, we have a gay teacher in the classroom and they have a wedding photo on their desk and the children are exposed then to the same kinds of picture that you say is in the book that you don't want children to be exposed to. | ||
| What about the parent, the teacher showing pictures from the wedding or the teacher goes off to get married and comes back and talks about their spouse? | ||
| Do we have opt-out provisions for children in that situation? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Again, we think the same rules would apply. | |
| And if you were an assistant. | ||
| The same rules would apply. | ||
| So this is not just about books. | ||
| This is about exposure to people of different sexual orientations and the objection, the sincerely held objection, that children shouldn't be exposed to this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Again, our clients are not raising those, and we know that these kinds of objections aren't happening. | |
| Here, the board is imposing indoctrination on children. | ||
| What if a student group puts up love is love posters around the school featuring same-sex couples or trans youth? | ||
| May parents, do parents have to have notice of this and the ability to opt their children out of going into the parts of the school where these posters are? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Again, we don't think that any child has the right to dictate what the school does. | |
| Back from the Supreme Court yesterday, the topic, this idea of an opt-out for parents to give them the option for their children to avoid being taught lessons and instruction from LGBTQ plus storybooks. | ||
| If you support that idea of an opt-out, 202748-8000, if you oppose it, 202748-8001, the numbers call. | ||
| Lucretia in Coca, Florida, on our support line. | ||
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I want to say that I support it for the main reason back in the 60s. | ||
| I only lived six months in Tennessee, and they still had Bible reading in the schools up there when it was not supposed to be. | ||
| And since we were Roman Catholic and the only book we were supposed to use was the Catholic book, my dad did get me out of that part of the class. | ||
| Now, in Florida, teachers don't get that. | ||
| I mean, parents don't get that kind of choice because they took over the whole education in Florida all the way through the universities. | ||
| And they even are putting out Ten Commandments in every friggin' classroom. | ||
| And being Catholic, I'm wondering if they're getting that from the King James book. | ||
| But in Florida also, they've got it now. | ||
| If you don't have a kid in school, you can't say nothing. | ||
| And I'm made a Floridian from the 50s. | ||
| I went through these schools. | ||
| I've never seen a teacher with a picture on their desk about their family. | ||
| My son went through the schools in the early 2000s, never saw a picture of pictures on the teacher's desks. | ||
| And it's like it's better to be able to opt out instead of having none of that stuff in there if we have to go that route. | ||
| Personally, I think religion don't belong in school at all because as the people, as the kids have friends, they're going to find out some of them are gay and some of them are different. | ||
| And that's the way life is. | ||
| Life is going to teach them what their parents ain't going to. | ||
| Lucretia there in Coco, Florida, giving off her thoughts. | ||
| This being reflected in similar by Greg Mosier this morning on Facebook saying we can prepare kids for life or quote, opt them out of life. | ||
| Only one approach will prepare them for the world. | ||
| Let's hear from someone on our opposed line. | ||
| This is Maddie in Michigan. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| Maddie in Michigan. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| One more time for Maddie in Michigan. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Let's hear from Kareem. | ||
| Kareem also on our opposed line. | ||
| Washington, D.C. Hello there. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, Pedro. | |
| So my issue is where do you draw the line? | ||
| So if we take sexuality out of it and say, hey, a parent can oppose anything that any curriculum that opposes sincere beliefs, it's Women's History Month. | ||
| So if I said, hey, I don't want my kids learning about like successful women because that's against my religious beliefs. | ||
| So I think we need to think about where do we draw the line in censoring like what kids can learn about the world. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Marlene. | ||
| Marlene joins us in Florida on our support line. | ||
| Hi, Marlene. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Yes, I support a religious opt-out or any other kind of opt-out for LBGQT books in the classroom because I think it has a lot to do with age appropriateness. | ||
| And we don't object to movies being rated, you know, as to whether they're appropriate for young children or not. | ||
| You know, a good G and the PG and all that. | ||
| And so I don't understand why we're allowing, you know, books to just unit's an appropriate age, you know, to introduce some of these books. | ||
| You know, you don't confuse kids. | ||
| You tell them there's man, there's woman. | ||
| You don't start going into 20, you know, 20 or 30 other combinations like bestiality or whatever. | ||
| You don't do that to young kids. | ||
| You know, you don't confuse them. | ||
| And it's just ridiculous. | ||
| We rate our movies. | ||
| Why don't we rate our books as to age appropriateness too? | ||
| And that's what this basically is. | ||
| I don't know why it's just, you know, religious. | ||
| It shouldn't be taught in the school, period. | ||
| You know, school is for math, reading, writing. | ||
| It's not. | ||
| Let me ask you this because you brought up the age appropriateness. | ||
| What if similar themes are taught on the, say, on the junior high level or the high school level? | ||
| Would you have the same kind of objection or at least the same kind of thought? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, no. | |
| I said age appropriateness. | ||
| You know, when kids reach a certain age, I don't know, 13, 14, 15, something like that, high school. | ||
| I would say high school. | ||
| You know, then other things can be introduced. | ||
| Although I don't see, you know, it can be introduced, you know, gradually or just not, you know, as a subject, you know, that we have to study every day. | ||
| I mean, it can be, you know, talked about, mentioned, I guess, discussed, but it shouldn't be because it's considered indoctrination and just ridiculous. | ||
| We have age-appropriate-appropriate movies, but why can't we have age-appropriate books? | ||
| And right away, when it's books, oh, we're banning books. | ||
| Well, why are we saying, oh, we're banning movies because we're not letting a certain age group watch a certain movie? | ||
| It's just ridiculous. | ||
| It's the same. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's the same thing. | |
| Marlene there in Florida giving us her thoughts. | ||
| Several Maryland people, residents of Maryland, calling us. | ||
| Again, this case stemming from Montgomery County, Marilyn Miguel in Gambrils, Maryland, pose line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| How's it going? | ||
| Thanks for having me. | ||
| Yeah, you know, I'm opposed to the whole entire thing. | ||
| I mean, when I called in, I don't know. | ||
| I'm listening to different callers, but I'm opposed to opting in or out. | ||
| I mean, I pay, you know, for these, for these people to teach my kids, and I don't want them to be indoctrinated. | ||
| I want them to, you know, learn the natural order. | ||
| And the natural order is man and woman. | ||
| And, you know, these books are trying to, like, like the woman said before, they're trying to confuse kids. | ||
| I think that this is a, it's kind of like a ploy. | ||
| They want to destroy our kids' ability to see things through the lens of the natural order. | ||
| And, you know, I'm not a religious person. | ||
| I'm not, you know, I was raised Catholic, but I don't raise my children religiously, but I don't want them to be taught things that are going to indoctrinate them. | ||
| I don't want them to learn about the gay agenda. | ||
| Okay, well, let me stop you there only because you called it on the wrong line when it comes to this idea of you support an opt-out or oppose an opt-out. | ||
| So viewers, as you're calling in, make sure you pick the best line that represents you. | ||
| The SCOTUS blog, taking a look at this case from yesterday, highlights some of the exchanges that were taking place, saying Justice Clarence Thomas asked Eric Baxter, who argued on behalf of the parents whether the LGBTQ themed storybooks were merely present in the classroom or instead actively used as part of the curriculum. | ||
| Baxter explained that teachers are required to use the books with the school board suggesting that they do so five times before the end of the year. | ||
| The whole point of including the storybooks in the curriculum, he stressed, was that every student would be taught from them. |