The book “Escaping the Matrix” is in the mail. I’ll be reviewing this for Mind & Media. Watch for the review posted here in the days ahead!

Wow.

Michelle Malkin summarizes the story:

The book, “Who’s in a Family?,” teaches preschoolers about “multicultural contemporary family units” including nuclear, intergenerational, mixed-race, and lesbian and gay arrangements. David Parker, father of a 5-year-old boy in Concord, Mass., was arrested Wednesday at his son’s kindergarten over a disagreement about the appropriateness of the material for his child.

Boston Globe story:

The dispute arose because [Parker and his wife] asked school officials to notify them about classroom discussions about same-sex marriage and what they called other adult themes. They also wanted the option to exclude their boy, now 6, from those talks.
Parker said he met with school officials to gain those assurances and then refused to leave until he got them. Parker stayed at Estabrook School for more than two hours, according to Superintendent William J. Hurley, as officials and Lexington police urged him to leave. Finally, they arrested him for trespassing.

Parker, who refused to bail himself out of jail Wednesday night, said he spent the night in custody to prove a point.

Michelle Malkin, regarding her own parenting, has this to say:

I don’t know about you, but we are preoccupied enough as it is teaching our four-and-half-year-old daughter to mind her manners, share, remember her phone number and address, and put the caps back on her markers. She can’t even tie her own shoes. No way is she ready to start learning about “alternative lifestyles.”

I was going to excerpt relevant portions of this email exchange, but it’s hard to do so without leaving something out. Click through and read the exchange for yourself. Here’s an attempt at summarizing.

January 17th:

We want to state for the record that [son’s name] shall be removed from any and all classroom or school functions which discuss or display homosexuality. We anticipate that you will respect our wishes.

We believe we have the right to answers from you to the following series of questions:

1) Is it the intention of Estabrook to include homosexual/lesbian family dynamics as part of the school curriculum?

2) Is your position in this matter that parents don’t have the right to intervene in teaching homosexual family values because of state law?

3) Is equal emphasis and sensitivity being given to Judeo/Christian/Islamic and secular communities and their respective family values— many of which do not endorse gay family values?

4) Do you commit to us that [son’s name] will not be subjected to homosexual family values at Estabrook?

5) Who else has viewed these materials and deemed it appropriate for the children in the school system to take home and view/read?

It is not necessarily you, solely, whom we wish to focus our concerns on, however; we feel as the principal- we need answers from your perspective. We will be posing these same question to other authorities.

In the interim time period, a series of back and forths between the principal and the Parkers regarding date and content of a meeting.

March 4:

We find it necessary to write to you and the Lexington Public School to inform you of the following:

We do not authorize any teacher or adult within the Lexington Public School system to expose our sons, [older son] and [younger son] (begins school in 2006) to any sexual orientation/homoseexual material/same sex unions between parents.

We shall be notified in advance of any such activity in the Estabrook School.

March 4 again:

We would like to clarify that our previous e-mail which states: “we do not give the Lexington Public School system permission to discuss homosexuality issues (i.e. - trans gender/bisexual/gay headed households) to our son [son’s name]” - is a parental assertion; not a matter open to legal interpretation or administrative policy. Let us, David and Tonia Parker, parents of [son’s name], be clear in purpose and prose on this matter:

Discussions concerning homosexuality issues will not take place in front of our son, [son’s name] (5 yrs old), at Estabrook. This includes material given to [our son] to covertly transport into our household (i.e.- diversity book bag). Such doctrine is against our Christian family beliefs. We will be notified when there are plans to have homosexual material discussed with the students - when [our son] is present - so that we can take action to ensure his spiritual safety. You are not permitted to infringe upon our religious beliefs and parental rights or obviate our freedom of choice, to exclude our son from material that would expose him to beliefs contrary to the Word of God in our Christian faith. Our parental rights and Christian belief system will be respected in this diversity- oriented, anti-biased school community. We know other parents, of various faiths and values, that endorse this position. This is not solely a Christian assertion of rights.

April 12th:

Dave and I would like to schedule a meeting with you at your convenience. Dave attended the anti-bias meeting on 4/11/05. They informed Dave that books with homosexual issues/families will be placed in every classroom in our school.

Were you aware of this? Who approved this? Various members of the anti-bias group also told Dave that our parental rights assertion would not be honored or respected at Estabrook. By what authority does the anti-bias group deny us of our rights? Who is responsible for the official response to our parental rights assertion pertaining to our son, [son’s name]?

April 22, principal responded:

We could both meet with you on Wednesday, April 27 at 2:30 or 3. Would that work for you?

It was at this meeting that Mr. Parker was arrested.

Jay Tea:

Quibble if you wish with Mr. Parker’s beliefs, but don’t challenge his right to possess them — and act on them. We need more parents who feel as protective of their children as he does.

The Pink Flamingo:

The vast gulf between the left and reality is making any possibility of my children ever going into any public school vanish. This is not as some might claim the Right Wing evangelicals rolling back the clock. This is much more like parents finally understanding what is being attempted by the left wing.

Joust the Facts:

And apparently the indoctrination must start early. It would be perfectly appropriate for these teachers to teach respect for all others, sharing, compassion, and other universally desirable traits in a developing child. To do this, however, does not require detailing specifics about homosexual-headed or any other types of families. As Gwendolyn noted that there is no way these teachers would point out economic differences and specify that ‘Joey’s’ family has lots of money and lives in a mansion, but ‘Carolyn’s’ parents rent a tenement apartment, would they? So what is the purpose of this specificity? It is to remove the parents from teaching social mores to their own children. They can’t take the chance that you might teach your children something that hasn’t received the “Seal of Approval.”

KelliPundit:

How many times do we hear educators complain how parents are not interested in their child’s education? Well, for a lot of educators this is just a load of excrement. Parental involvement is their worse fear.

Kimberly Swygert:

I certainly hope he withdraws his child from that school system while this injunction is still in order. I’m also interested in seeing whether the school can back up the claim that teaching kindergarteners about alternative lifestyles is both necessary and not dependent on parental permission (as sexuality/sex education classes would be).

Tampa Jeff:

It’s not just the weather that compels 800 people a day to move to Florida.

For a different perspective, Daily Dose of Queer wonders:

How do you get to a place, mentally, where you are so bothered by your child being present for homosexual discussions at school that you refuse to leave your son’s school until they agree to notify you before any discussion including homosexuality so you can save him from such a disgusting topic? It seems literally crazy to me.

Palm Tree Pundit contrasts this arrest to these non-arrests.

Bookworm:

I’m very much not opposed to homosexuals and I haven’t yet made up my mind about the societal benefits or burden of homosexual marriage. I simply object strongly to well-meaning governmental busybodies exposing my very young children to delicate matters of sexuality that are not yet on my developmental schedule for them.