(DC Pundit) – A standout senior at a Maryland high school is being denied the chance to graduate next month, and no, it’s not because she was slacking off. It’s because she dared to exercise her religious beliefs, a move that clearly triggered the bureaucrats running Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).
The student, referred to as “Jane” by Fox News Digital to protect her identity, is a top-tier academic talent, boasting a 4.76 weighted GPA and a 1450 SAT score, landing her in the 96th percentile. She’s also deeply involved in extracurricular activities and has spent her high school years actually contributing to her school community, exactly the sort of model student liberals usually claim to champion.
Unfortunately, none of that matters to MCPS. According to her parents and academic records, Jane’s diploma is being held hostage unless she completes a mandatory health course, which her family says is laced with “LGBTQ+ affirming” material and “religiously discriminatory” content that collides head-on with their Christian faith.
“She’s pretty distraught about not being able to graduate with all her friends and experience that rite of passage,” Jane’s father said, highlighting just how determined the district is to make an example out of a kid who won’t toe the ideological line.
After more than two years of fighting the system, Jane’s family has now taken their battle to the Maryland Supreme Court, filing a petition to review their case against the Montgomery County Board of Education (MCBE). Time is ticking down on Jane’s senior year, and the family is hoping the state’s highest court will put a stop to the madness before it is too late.
This all started back in August 2022, when the parents discovered that LGBTQ+ content was no longer restricted to the Family Life and Human Sexuality (FLHS) unit of the course, as it had been in previous years. Instead, the material would now be peppered throughout the entire health curriculum like unwanted sprinkles on a perfectly good cake.
Screenshots shared with Fox News Digital from alleged training documents show that teachers were instructed to “review LGBTQ+ resources to incorporate more inclusive language” across the board. Another gem from the teacher guide allegedly ranks Christians as “privileged” while “Non Abrahamic Religions/Spiritualities” are deemed “oppressed.” Nothing says health education like labeling your students based on their religious affiliation.
And it gets better. Another document, charmingly titled “worship of the written word,” urges teachers to sniff out “White supremacy culture” lurking in classrooms and homes.
Understandably, Jane’s family pulled her from the health class and asked for a common-sense solution: let her fulfill the requirement through a course at a Catholic high school or via independent study under the supervision of a qualified teacher. MCPS’ response? A firm “no.” Apparently, the only acceptable form of education is one that happens under the district’s ideological microscope.
MCPS insisted Jane could either take the class with an MCPS teacher or attempt dual enrollment at a community college. However, the latter clashed with her school schedule and, more importantly, still wouldn’t shield her from exposure to the very curriculum her family objected to.
After their reasonable proposals were shot down, the family appealed to the Circuit Court of Montgomery County in August 2024. Unsurprisingly, the court sided with the school board in December. The parents then filed an appeal to the Appellate Court in January and, with the clock running out, petitioned the Maryland Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari.
Her parents argue that MCPS blatantly overstepped its bounds. Under current law, LGBTQ+ instruction is supposed to be limited to the FLHS unit, and parents are supposed to have the right to opt their child out. As they put it in a March 7, 2024 letter to the Maryland State Board of Education: “We are not trying to get MCPS to stop teaching about LGBTQ+ or change its curriculum. We are trying to get MCPS to keep that teaching restricted to the Family Life and Human Sexuality part of the curriculum so we can get notice of it and opt-out our daughter, or if MCPS is allowed to spread LGBTQ+ instruction throughout the entire health class, as its teacher instruction materials say it is doing, it follows that MCPS should allow us to opt-out our daughter from the entire class. We are trying to get MCPS to refrain from discriminating against religion.”
Instead of simply transferring Jane to another school, the family has chosen to stand and fight for their daughter, and for every other religious student stuck in a system that appears far more interested in ideological conformity than genuine education.
They’ve also filed a separate complaint against the school, accusing MCPS of “knowingly and willfully” violating the Maryland Public Information Act by stonewalling their attempts to access lesson materials. Because if you have nothing to hide, naturally your first instinct is to withhold public information, right?
The Montgomery County Board of Education, the Maryland State Department of Education, and MCPS all declined to comment on the pending litigation, probably because there’s no clever spin that makes punishing a straight-A student for her religious beliefs look good.
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