A Bay Area school district being sued in federal court for denying parents their request to opt out of LGBTQ+ curriculum on religious grounds has now agreed to allow those students to skip such lessons, federal court records show.
Elizabeth and Justin Taylor sued the Sunnyvale School District in June, claiming the district denied their request for their four children to opt out of LGBTQ+ instruction that conflicts with their religious beliefs. The parents cited a 2025 U.S Supreme Court decision in which the court’s conservative majority ruled that parents have the right to opt out children from instruction that conflicts with their religious beliefs.
In response to the parents’ suit, the school district said that the Supreme Court decision did not apply because it did “not create a general or automatic right for parents to opt their children out of required curriculum. It also does not override California’s statutory requirements governing instructional content.”
“Under California law, districts are required to provide inclusive instructional content that reflects the diversity of our community, including representation of LGBTQ+ individuals and families, as part of our core academic program,” the district’s director of student support services, Paul Slayton, wrote.
A lawyer representing the Taylors in their suit wrote that the district’s response “flew in the face” of the Supreme Court decision.
In a Sept. 4 court filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the school district said it would allow the Taylors’ children to opt out while the case remains pending.
The district said in the filing that “it will not use materials that addresses same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships, human sexuality, gender identity and gender expression as part of teacher-guided instruction” to the Taylors’ children.
The district’s lawyer, William Tunick, did not respond to a request for comment on the filing.
The Taylors’ lawyer, Michael O’Brien, of Washington D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, called the agreement with the district “a welcome development that we hope will pave the way for a comprehensive resolution fully protecting the Taylor family.”
Court records show the district has until Nov. 25 to reply to the Taylors’ suit. A case management conference is scheduled for Jan. 5 in San Jose.
This story originally appeared in EdSource.
