August 22, 2025
On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school boards must provide parents an opportunity to opt their children out of radical gender teachings and reading materials in public schools. The 6-3 Mahmoud v Taylor decision on a lawsuit brought by parents from Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox Christian and other faith backgrounds shook one of the foundational tenets of transformational education – its false teaching about male and female, boy and girl. Now, parents and school boards across the country have a powerful tool to challenge destructive and twisted assaults on our nation’s children.
As parents begin the 2025-2026 school year, there are steps they can take to protect their children from this dangerous ideology. Challenging gender-radical teachers and school boards is urgent. (However, keep in mind that these actions cannot fully protect children from this pervasive school culture of deceit. Public schools are not safe places for children. We encourage parents to exit the public school system however possible.)
Minnesota already has an opt-out statute known as the Parental Curriculum Review law (Minnesota Statute 120B.20) that allows parents the right to review the content of instructional materials before it is provided. If they object to the content, they may opt their children out and provide alternative instruction at their own expense. The Mahmoud decision strengthens the Minnesota opt-out law by making it a constitutional mandate for teachers and schools to comply. Additionally, according to this ruling, schools are not allowed to keep parents in the dark about controversial lessons and programs – something that has been a frequent complaint from parents.
In the Supreme Court ruling, the right to opt out is about more than simple exposure to controversial values. As the Court stated, it is about content “designed to present certain values and beliefs as things to be celebrated, and certain contrary values and beliefs as things to be rejected.” You may notice that current Minnesota public school curriculum fits this description perfectly. It is not neutral on controversial gender issues, and it hasn’t been for years.
In 2010, Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District, the largest school district in the state, was targeted by activists, the state and the U.S. Department of Education for adopting a gender “neutrality policy” which presented homosexuality from neither an affirming nor condemning perspective. The lawsuit claimed that “neutrality” created a “hostile environment” for homosexuals.
By 2012, the Obama administration forced the district into an expensive, elaborate and onerous federal “consent decree” which required the district to essentially transform its policy of neutrality into one of affirmation, including gender identity and gender expression. Since that lawsuit, no Minnesota school district has attempted to pass a gender neutrality policy. They simply could not afford expensive lawsuits they couldn’t win.
But in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that the U.S. Constitution protects parents’ right to guide their children’s religious development. Parents have the right to remove their children when their religious beliefs are being violated, and it opens the door to parental objections toward other curricular content.
In Mahmoud, writing for the majority, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. stated that our nation has long held that “[parents’] rights are violated by government policies that substantially interfere with the religious development of children.”
At issue is the free exercise clause and the establishment clause of the 1st Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” For decades radical courts have interpreted “establishment” to mean that every vestige of religion must be removed from public institutions. Public schools became openly hostile to religion and they now teach values and beliefs which completely contradict the faith of families from a broad spectrum of religions. Schools replaced faith teachings with a new religion called Secular Humanism and got away with it.
Gender activists aren’t going away quietly.
Gender activist leaders state openly that they consider gender identity “inclusion” and DEI to be the core principles of public education.
Gender Justice, one of Minnesota’s key gender ideology activist groups, litigates and advocates for policies and laws such as gender surgery for minors, boys in girls’ sports and locker rooms, and LGBTQ+ clubs in schools. In a recent webinar interpreting the Mahmoud v Taylor ruling for their followers, Gender Justice’sAdvocacy Director, Education Minnesota’s General Counsel, and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State’s VP and Legal Director all expressed outrage that the court did not consider “diversity, equity and inclusion” more important than the religious rights of parents. DEI, they said, is the very purpose of public education.
They said that “the equity and inclusion interests of the school board” are the core of public education. “We have public education because we want kids from all walks of life to learn common themes…and gain perspectives that they wouldn’t necessarily get at home.” Not academics. Not math, reading, and science. But “perspectives” on gender ideology that most parents don’t teach their children at home!
Just as Justice Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion, the “inclusion” concept “imposes conformity with a view that undermines parents’ religious beliefs and thus interferes with the parents’ right to direct the religious upbringing of their children.”
He continued, “The curriculum itself also betrays an attempt to impose ideological conformity with specific views on sexuality and gender. The storybooks are… unmistakably normative.”
But Gender Justice complained that Justice Thomas allows parents to opt out of “accepting reality, the reality that we choose to live in. And a beautiful reality.” Evidently, Gender Justice doesn’t recognize that their statement is a clear oxymoron. “Reality” isn’t “chosen.” Reality is what is true.
And it is also true that academic outcomes in public schools are tanking because academic achievement has been replaced by DEI as the purpose of public education! DEI is a destructive political strategy destroying our nation’s future, our freedom, and our children.
TAKING ACTION
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) has provided valuable resources to equip school boards, administrators, teachers, and parents to implement and comply with the constitutional decision. These resources may be downloaded and modified for individual needs.
This is CPL’s Minnesota Model parent opt-out letter.
Request to see your child’s curriculum and assignments in advance.
WILL Model parent opt-out form
WILL Model school board policy
Contact your local school board about passing clear policies on parental notifications and opt-outs.
WILL Model teacher notification letter to parents
Provide teachers and administrators with a sample notification letter.
WILL also published an excellent summary of the ruling and its implications, Mahmoud v. Taylor: What Does It Mean for Parents of Public School Children?.
As the school year begins, be sure to refuse permission for your children’s participation in all surveys!
A Lakeville School District Win for All
The Upper Midwest Law Center represented Lakeville School District parents in their lawsuit against the Lakeville School District (Courtside with UMLC: The Fight for Free Speech in Lakeville Schools). The lawsuit was about a violation of their child’s and the parent’s right to speak freely about their own values and beliefs and whether values other than DEI are allowed. The parents initially lost their case in the Minnesota District Court, but they ultimately prevailed in the 8th District Federal Appeals Court. This video (26 minutes) describes how their victory has national significance. It also discusses the parents’ experience and the price they paid for speaking up at their school board meetings.
Closing thoughts
All of us won’t be filing lawsuits, but every parent needs to build on the work and the opportunities these heroic parents have given us. Examine the books, classroom materials and programs in the schools. Opt your kids out of indoctrination into radical gender ideology. When many students opt out, school administrators know that teaching the curriculum becomes unmanageable. And just as importantly, as students increasingly opt out, it sends a clear message to the whole classroom that those perspectives are wrong and completely unacceptable. All taxpayers can engage with their school boards to support them in adopting appropriate opt-out policies in alignment with the Mahmoud Supreme Court ruling.
Minnesota’s radical laws and policies are gaining serious national attention. A national policy nonprofit that includes a “litigation center,” America First Policy Institute (AFPI), has opened a new Minnesota chapter. Minnesota’s embedded DEI policies and laws are growing targets of federal agencies, too. Cities, municipalities and school districts recognize they risk losing federal funding as top-down federal challenges coincide with local challenges from the ground up, from We the People.
Become part of the movement to protect our children and restore our nation. The time is now. We have not had a landscape nor tools this favorable for parental rights in over 50 years!