[DOWNLOAD] "Unjustly Usurping the Parental Right: Fields V. Palmdale School District." by Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Unjustly Usurping the Parental Right: Fields V. Palmdale School District.
- Author : Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
- Release Date : January 22, 2006
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 269 KB
Description
The right of a parent to control his child's upbringing is one of the few fundamental rights recognized by courts as protected under the doctrine of substantive due process. (1) Rooted in vague pronouncements made in two cases decided in the 1920s, Meyer v. Nebraska (2) and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, (3) this amorphous parental right has never been clearly defined by the Supreme Court. (4) This lack of guidance has proven especially troublesome in the context of public schools where parents have attempted to shield their children from school mandates ranging from dress codes (5) to sex education. (6) Were parental rights to dominate school interests, public education would become untenable, as each parent would effectively hold veto power over the school's curriculum. Thus, many courts have envisioned the Meyer-Pierce right as a balance between the competing interests of the parents and the schools. (7) Yet not until Fields v. Palmdale School District (8) did a federal appellate court establish a bright-line rule for parental rights claims relating to a public school's actions. In Fields, Judge Reinhardt of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held--rousing much controversy (9)--that "the Meyer-Pierce right does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door." (10) Though described by some as a restrained opinion, (11) Fields construes precedent broadly, ignores parental interests, and emasculates the Meyer-Pierce right in the public school setting. Instead of cutting off parental rights inside public schools, the court should have recognized the delicate interplay between the difficult job of educating students from differing backgrounds and the parental right to inculcate moral standards in their own children. (12) When the parental interest asserted is fundamentally central to the parent-child relationship, the public school must not be given a free pass.