Boyd schools' gay tolerance training upheld

[Scooter24]

Boyd schools' gay tolerance training upheld

COURT FINDS MANDATORY SESSIONS DON'T VIOLATE STUDENTS' RIGHTS
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASHLAND - Students have no religious or free-speech right to opt out of school training aimed at stopping anti-gay harassment in Boyd County schools, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning said "there is simply no basis for an opt-out" by three students who skipped mandatory sessions at Boyd County schools, because the training did not endorse any viewpoint or require students to disavow their religious beliefs.

Bunning wrote in an opinion issued late Friday that mandatory training "to address the issue of harassment at school, including harassment based upon actual or perceived sexual orientation, is rationally related to a legitimate educational goal, namely to maintain a safe environment."

The anti-gay harassment sessions were part of a settlement in 2004 of a three-year dispute between the school district and a now-defunct gay-rights group that wanted recognition as an extracurricular group.

(more)

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/13909672.htm?source=rss&channel=kentucky_state

[rodeodance]

1. oh for petey's sake: These people have brainwashed their kids so they

do not even want to listen.

[mom cat]

2. Imagine people claiming they shouldn't be subjected to anti hate

courses because they are Christian. Go figure Jesus.

[iverglas]

3. what a very good example

of restrictions on the exercise of freedoms -- speech and religion -- that are regarded by a society as justified: the restrictions are

rationally related to a legitimate educational goal,
namely to maintain a safe environment.

And obviously, restrictions on anti-gay speech within the school are similarly regarded as justified, for the same reasons.

Freedom of speech doesn't trump everything everytime everywhere, after all.