Hmmm, after reading the second article, I have to say that the first article stretched the truth some in claiming the parents had no recourse to having their child in the class. They had plenty of choices.
1) a cirricullum change. They could simply have requested a different course for their child.
2) no mention of "transferring out" to a different school was made. Only that the kids wouldn't be allowed to change teachers. HOWEVER, the parents didn't handle it correctly if they only said they wanted out of this teacher's class. What they should have done was claimed that their religious belief were being trampled by being forced to be a party to something considered morally abhorant in their religion. Muslims do it every day.
3) Homeschooling is a perfectly legimate way of educating your child in New York State. Any guff about pulling your child out for any reason is why the HSLDA (hslda.org) was formed.
4) Private schooling is also quite legal in that state.
The battle for cases like this was lost when good people decided that gender identity disorder was a medical condition. Once that was done, the teacher became eligible for all the same accomodations that a person with diabetes would recieve.
Here again, I am surprised that Christians expect nonChristians to understand and behave according to our beliefs. If a Christain parent doesn't want their child in this persons class, they should put their money where their mouth is and pull them out.
This isn't about not being "allowed" to do something different. This is about a handful of parents in a democratic society that want their way or no way. The rest of the communty, right or wrong, had no problem with this teacher being in the classroom.
Change people's hearts and you will change America. Until then, might as well get used to this sort of thing.
