The State and educational authorities must fully respect and accommodate the authority of parents and 
guardians to direct the education of their own children, according to a new document [1] drafted by the Canadian Catholic Civil Rights League.
The document, entitled Declaration on the Authority of Parents and Guardians in the Education of their Children, says that parents have “a primordial and inalienable authority to educate their own children that is neither dependent upon nor derived from the broader community or the state”.
The drafting of the document was sparked by a new school policy on sexual orientation/gender identity in Burnaby, a district in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Parents in the area have said that the new policy would promote homosexuality and censor all opposition in the public school system.
The draft policy, approved by the Board of Trustees in February, defines “heterosexism” as a “mistaken assumption” that “all people are heterosexual and that heterosexuality is superior and the norm by which all other sexual orientation and gender identities are measured.” It says it “perpetuates negative stereotypes and is dangerous to individuals and communities.”
Parents in the area have denounced the plan, saying that it undermines parental authority.
The new declaration, although drafted by a Catholic lay group, is “not specific to the Catholic Church or Catholic teaching,” said Sean Murphy, a spokesperson for the group. “It cites numerous international conventions and declarations that have been signed by many nations, including Canada.”
The Declaration says that parents and guardians should receive from society the necessary aid and assistance to perform their educational role properly.
While it accepts that parents “may delegate some of their educational responsibility to trusted persons and institutions, including schools operated by communities, non-governmental or religious organizations or the state,” it insists that parents and guardians retain their authority “even when they delegate some of their responsibility to others who assist them”.
It acknowledges that parents and guardians “have a serious duty to commit themselves to a cordial and active relationship with teachers and school authorities” but adds that teachers and school “must uphold the primacy of parental authority in the education of their own children”.
Parents and guardians, the Declaration adds, also have a right to “establish or support schools that educate their children in a manner that is consistent with their educational goals and moral or religious convictions”.
“They have the right to maintain the integrity of these schools in the face of demands that would subvert the purpose for their existence,” the Declaration says.