Linda K. Wertheimer
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Linda K. Wertheimer
@lindakwert.bsky.social
830 followers 620 following 160 posts
Author of Faith Ed, Teaching about Religion in an Age of Intolerance. Independent Journalist, formerly of Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News. @medillschool alumna; @FellowsSpencer; @theopedproject #skatermom of ice dancer. I'm not the NPR Linda
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Reposted by Linda K. Wertheimer
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Sotomayor, in dissent, correctly says that today's decision in Mahmoud will lead public schools to simply censor books featuring LGBTQ characters and themes, creating "chaos" and stigmatizing children with LGBTQ families. This decision will lead to book bans.
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
The result will be chaos for this Nation’s public schools. Requiring schools to provide advance notice and the chance to opt out of every lesson plan or story time that might implicate a parent’s religious beliefs will impose impossible administrative burdens on schools. The harm will not be borne by educators alone: Children will suffer too. Classroom disruptions and absences may well inflict long-lasting harm on students’ learning and development. Worse yet, the majority closes its eyes to the inevitable chilling effects of its ruling. Many school districts, and particularly the most resource strapped, cannot afford to engage in costly litigation over opt-out rights or to divert resources to tracking and managing student absences. Schools may instead censor their curricula, stripping material that risks generating religious objections. The Court’s ruling, in effect, thus hands a subset of parents the right to veto curricular choices long left to locally elected school boards. Because I cannot countenance the Court’s contortion of our precedent and the untold harms that will follow, I dissent.
June 27, 2025 at 3:00 PM