(LifeSiteNews) — A three-judge panel of the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Iowa may enforce a 2023 law prohibiting LGBT indoctrination in elementary school and excluding sexually explicit material from public school libraries.
Senate File 496 prohibits any instruction relating to “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” from kindergarten through sixth grade, excludes from school libraries any books containing depictions or descriptions of sex acts, requires school library catalogs to be posted online for parents’ review, enables parents to request removal of objectionable classroom materials, requires parental consent to survey children on a variety of topics including political affiliation and mental health, and requires parental notification of any student request to be recognized as the opposite gender.
“This legislative session, we secured transformational education reform that puts parents in the driver’s seat, eliminates burdensome regulations on public schools, provides flexibility to raise teacher salaries, and empowers teachers to prepare our kids for their future,” Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said upon signing it in May 2023. “Education is the great equalizer and everyone involved – parents, educators, our children – deserves an environment where they can thrive.”
But the law faced lawsuits from the Iowa State Education Association and LGBT activist group Iowa Safe Schools, and last year, one judge blocked the portion of the law concerning books, and another ruled that the language restricting any “program” or “promotion” was too broad to enforce.
On Monday, the Eighth Circuit panel sided with the state and said the law may be enforced while the case works its way through the system, the Associated Press reports. The judges determined that school library content qualifies as part of a school’s curriculum and is therefore subject to the state’s discretion, adding that the “First Amendment does not guarantee students the right to access books of their choosing at taxpayer expense.”
“This is a huge win for Iowa parents,” responded Republican state Attorney General Brenna Bird. “Parents should always know that school is a safe place for their children to learn, not be concerned they are being indoctrinated with inappropriate sexual materials and philosophies.”
The indoctrination of children with left-wing ideology on sexuality, race, and other agenda items has long been a major concern in American public schools and libraries, from book shelves to drag events to classroom materials to even “transitioning” troubled children without parental input. Many schools have also displayed hostility to the rights and employment of individual teachers who refuse to go along with such agendas. Across the nation, controversy has also erupted in recent years over schools and libraries adopting books that attempt to expose sexual themes and activity to children, often in graphic detail and with pornographic imagery depicting specific sex acts.
Last November, the Iowa State Board of Education rolled out the final language for new rules which, among other things, re-worded various education policies to comply with the legislature’s removal of “gender identity” as a protected class in the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
Christian group Inspired Life hailed the change for restoring the primacy of parents as “responsible for guiding their children’s understanding of gender and sexuality according to their values and their beliefs” while schools instead focus on academic fundamentals such as math, science, history, and reading.
