By Allie Martin
October 23, 2002
(AgapePress) - A California school district has come under fire again for failing to notify parents of a student presentation that included references to homosexuality. The dispute marks the third complaint filed against the district in the last two years.
Officials with the Elk Grove School District say they did nothing wrong when they invited performer Michael Fowlin to appear at a middle school earlier this year. Fowlin conducts a one-person show, called "You Don't Know Me Until You Know Me: A Dance With Diversity." The performance reportedly deals with issues such as race, discrimination, personal identity, suicide, "gender equity," and homophobia.
Parents of several students contacted the Pacific Justice Institute after they were informed of the in-school assembly that took place at Toby Johnson Middle School. Parents of one student say they were not given advance notice of Fowlin's visit, even though one of the characters in his performance is a homosexual football player struggling with his identity.
 Brad Dacus |
"These are things that clearly violate the law of the State of California," Dacus states. "But even more importantly, they violate the fundamental rights of parents because parents at no time received any prior notice before this [performance] was given -- and that's a clear violation of the law."
Dacus explains that parents should have been notified in advance about the program -- and schools need to remember to do that.
"Public schools are going to have to learn a lesson," he says, "and that is, when they trample on the rights of parents in the name of any new social agenda or social mantra, they can expect to pay a price in a court of law that they will never forget. I think it's very important for public schools to know that there's a price to be paid for violating the rights of parents."
School officials billed the performance as a "diversity forum," but Dacus says the mention of homosexuality turned the event into a discussion about a sex-related issue.
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