Arizona’s Education Leaders Applaud Supreme Court Ruling in Favor of Parental Rights and Sexually Explicit Curriculum

Arizona Superintendents of Public Instruction, past and present, along with conservative parental rights advocates are applauding the U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows parents to take their children out of class if the material being taught goes against their religious beliefs.

Specifically, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on the case of Mahmoud v. Taylor that the government burdens parents’ religious exercise when it requires their children to participate in instruction that violates the families’ religious beliefs.

Justice Samuel Alito authored the majority opinion. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissent and was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Arizona’s current Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne believes parents should have the final say if their children are taught material relating to sexual content.

“The United States Supreme Court decision allowing parents to have their children opt out of inappropriate sexual classes is needed,” said Horne. “While scientific education regarding reproduction at an appropriate age is perfectly proper, there has been a trend to subject young children to sexual lessons which are inappropriate to their age. Defenders of these programs say they want to be welcoming and inclusive. The proper way to do that is to include all students in education about reading, writing, math, science, history, and the arts. The inappropriate lessons about which parents are complaining are a distraction from these crucial academic subjects. My principal goal has been to bring back academic focus into the classrooms. Many of these age-inappropriate sexual lessons are distasteful, damaging to young children, and are a distraction from the academics teachers ought to be teaching.”

Diane Douglas, who served as Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2015 – 2019, agreed with the Court that parents should have say in what their children learn, but she still felt the Court got it wrong.

“Opt-out won’t protect the kids,” Douglas told the Arizona Daily Independent. “As long as government schools and the elected officials who oversee them continue to allow explicit sex education curriculum to be imposed upon minor children the only way for parental rights to be protected is with full and explicit disclosure of the content to each and every parent. Then parents may choose to opt-in their children with signed parental consent.”

Adrienne Johnson, Director of SMART School Boards for Arizona Women of Action, agreed with Douglas.

“All sex ed classes and material must be opt in and quite honestly, sex ed should not be a subject in K-12 schools because the government does not have moral authority,” Johnson told the Arizona Daily Independent. “Material that delves into sex and sexuality can easily be skewed by additional lessons and unapproved input from teachers and classmates that the parent did not consent to and that may go against their beliefs. What happened in a Catalina Foothills School District class is a perfect example.”

We obtained this audio recording of a biased lecture in a 9th grade CFHS Health class on LGBTQ issues. You will hear the teacher encourage students to question what they've been told by their religious leaders and parents. pic.twitter.com/CFiYKZ19Gx

— Save CFSD (@SaveCFSD) May 28, 2025

INSANE. A teacher at @CFSD16 gives a lecture promoting LGBTQ propaganda, teaching kids how to transition, demonizing the Church, and encouraging students not to trust their parents.

This is GROOMING.pic.twitter.com/78vSPcYhWf

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 28, 2025