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Part I of an In-depth Look at Article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

This week, we continue our series on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by considering Article 13, which states that “the child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.”

The crux of this article is the child’s “right to information.” Children access information through what they are taught and what they discover on their own. This week, we will consider the Convention’s implications on what children are taught.
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ParentalRights.org was recently quoted in this news article, with excerpts below. 

Judge Boots Parents from Son’s Schooling

Another judge in Massachusetts has ruled against parental input regarding the education of their own children, this time deciding that a district’s special education program for a 13-year-old can move forward even though his parents refused to sign an authorization for the additional monitoring and counseling…

Officials at Parental Rights (www.ParentalRights.org) said they couldn’t comment on the specific case without seeing more information about the judge’s order, which was issued verbally and not in writing. But they said in general, the system should not push parents away.

“Parents know their children better than anyone and if the state refuses to partner with parents in public schools then we’ve got a serious problem,” a spokesman said.

This is an interesting story. A Florida county put a McDonald’s promotion on school report cards that awards free Happy Meals to children who get good grades. This issue was highlighted by an advocacy group called the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC). They seem to do a lot of good work on behalf of parents and kids. Of personal interest to me is their work against the corporate sexualization of children because I have three daughters. My oldest is eight and I can already see the influences of marketing on her. It is scary to me that much of that marketing undermines me as a parent and what I am trying to teach her. Kids are very impressionable and need their parents to protect and guide them as they grow.

Susan Linn, the director of CCFC has a great quote in their release on the issue that sums it up well, “It bypasses parents and targets children directly with the message that doing well in school should be rewarded by a Happy Meal.” She goes on to say, “Turning report cards into ads for McDonald’s undermines parents efforts to encourage healthy eating.” Regardless of your view on whether McDonald’s is healthy or not, we should all agree that the parents, not a corporation and the school administration, should be making those decisions for kids.

What about you? Have you experienced marketing from corporations that you believe undermines you as a parent?

Last Saturday, hundreds of Maryland schoolchildren lined up with their parents in front of the Prince Georges County courthouse to receive mandatory vaccinations. About 2,300 children in the school district had not received vaccines for chickenpox or hepatitis B, prompting state officials to threaten parents with fines or even jail time if they did not comply.

According to Barbara Loe Fisher, President of the National Vaccine Information Center, terrorizing and threatening parents with jail time is not the way to handle the situation. “Chickenpox is not smallpox and hepatitis B is not polio,” Fisher explains.

The school’s response has also been decried by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons as a power play that “obliterates informed consent and parental rights.” The AAPS is also concerned that “vaccine round-ups,” like this one, could expose children to a dangerous cocktail of vaccines without first adequately checking their medical history for potentially-harmful side-effects.

The fundamental question isn’t whether vaccination is beneficial or harmful for children, but who should decide: the parents or the state? It is vitally important that parents are provided with access to the information they need to make important decisions, such as whether to vaccinate their children. But giving parents an ultimatum by compelling them to accept shots or face jail time crosses the line.

It was a dark and stormy night. Or, more specifically, it was a dark and stormy night by the time parents in Orange County, Florida were allowed to pick up their children from school.Thunderstorms had started earlier in the afternoon of Friday, August 24th. With an eye on the lighting outside, school officials decided to keep the thousands of children at Ocoee Elementary and Middle Schools inside the building — indefinitely. When mothers and fathers began to arrive to pick up their children, security officials turned them away, informing parents that they were not permitted to pick up their children.

HELD LIKE HOSTAGES

The refusal of school officials to allow parents to sign out their own children quickly escalated to a lockdown, or a “hostage situation”, as some parents called it. “These are our rights and we feel like our rights were violated because we could not sign out our children,” parent Julie Leckie said.

It wasn’t until around 8:00 at night that parents were permitted — finally — to take their children home.

An editorial on the Florida school lockdown published afterwards in the Orlando Sentinel states that, “It’s obvious that schools are responsible for the safety of children, but that responsibility ends where the responsibilities and rights of parents begin.” The editorial agrees that schools should take steps to protect children, but reminds readers that in the end, “parents should have the final say.”

PROTECTING PARENTAL RIGHTS

At ParentalRights.org, we agree that parents are best qualified to make crucial decisions about their children’s safety, not to mention their education and upbringing. We are committed to protecting the vital role of parents in the lives of their kids and we are thankful that you are too. We live in an era when parental rights are coming under attack from government action and policy. It is an era when some would put government first and parents last in the lives of their own children. We can’t allow this to happen.

We need your help to safeguard the precious child-parent relationship. Join with us by encouraging your friends to get involved in the battle to protect parental rights.

SOURCES

Parents: Lighting Lockdown Violated Rights

Parents Furious After Schools Hold Students During Lighting Storm

Parents Should Have Say