Maryland

Maryland sex curriculum conflict is a battle of vulnerabilities

Published

1 year ago

June 26, 2023

Maryland sex curriculum conflict is a battle of vulnerabilities

This school year, Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), one of the largest school districts in the country, instituted a curriculum whose selection for pre-K, “Pride Puppy,” encourages 3-year-olds to search for images of the “‘intersex [flag],’ a ‘[drag] king,’ ‘leather,’ ‘underwear,’ and a celebrated sex worker.”

Resource guides for children’s books on transgender people instruct the teacher to tell students that people only “guess” gender based on body parts. What’s more, religious parents with opposing beliefs about gender are no longer permitted to opt their child out of the elementary curriculum.

Now, there is a pending lawsuit by Muslim and Christian parents against MCPS. And at a recent Board of Education meeting, Muslim families testified about their concerns, only to be told by one council member, Kristin Mink, that (the entirely brown or Black) Muslim families were on the “same side” as “white supremacists.” She has since understandably expressed regret for saying such a thing.

Evidently preposterous on its face, Mink’s statement also got to the core of the conflict: a clash of victimhood and a stark inability to value the religious vulnerabilities at the core of the dispute.

Mink went on to say, “[T]o allow Muslim families to opt their children out of those books … harm[s] the LGBTQIA+ community.” Meanwhile, Muslim students also shared stories of harm. For example, one student spoke of religious students “being bullied when they say this is against my religion.”

Each side feels deeply wronged, as if the other’s position inherently legitimizes harm to their children and to their community. Such competing victimhood is a common dynamic that functions across multiple chasms — between American Muslims and white conservative Christians and between gay rights activists and religious Americans who have traditional views about marriage and sexuality. In each scenario, the parties devolve into warring factions, incapable and unwilling to speak across vulnerabilities because of entrenched divides.

The MCPS context is, however, importantly different. The protesting Muslim families have consistently acknowledged the importance of inclusivity and fellowship with students and families potentially marginalized due to sexual identity. As MCPS middle school student Saad Baig testified June 6, “I’m not here to take away the right of anyone being recognized in the community.” Similarly, community member Hamza Ewing emphasized that: “Our stance, as stated clearly, is not to remove LGBTQ material from the MCPS curriculum. … We are not spreading hatred … and, in fact, we firmly stand against hate speech or the degradation of any human being.”

In contrast, there has been scant consideration of the deep relevance of religion — including religious beliefs about gender and sexuality — to the lives of Muslim, Christian and other religious families at MCPS. Religious parents seeking to opt their children out of the sex curriculum have been portrayed as “brainwashed” and “hateful.” One member of the Board of Education said religious families are seeking a “dehumanizing form of erasure.” The rhetoric consistently reflects a dismissive attitude, a sense that the harm to religious families is unimportant — or worse yet, not even real.

The myopia is startling. Multiple aspects of the curriculum are deeply impactful to religious families with traditional views of not just gender and sexuality but also on the appropriate role of parents (and schoolteachers) in their children’s lives. Three-year-olds are being taught vocabulary such as “cis-gender” and “pansexual.” The fourth grade curriculum instructs the teacher to explore their students’ romantic attractions, including same-sex attractions. With a book about two girls finding love on a playground, the teacher is to invite students to “acknowledg[e] how uncomfortable we might [be]… when we feel our heart beating ‘thumpity thump’ & how hard it can be [to] talk about our feelings with someone that we don’t just ‘like’ but we ‘like like.’”

Fifth graders are to read a book about a young girl who believes she’s transgender and is encouraged on this path by parents who don’t ask questions and instead embrace a “child-knows-best approach,” which is complemented by a “school-knows-best-approach.” The curriculum prioritizes the teachers’ role in these intimate aspects of young children’s lives and deprioritizes parents. In fact, if parents are not fully affirming of children’s self-diagnosis, this curriculum directly makes them the objects of opposition.

The tension inherent in religious dissent to this sexual curriculum is not a black-and-white issue. The approach to it as such makes it even more difficult to find workable solutions. And to even begin to understand the nuances, the other side must be seen as worthy of engagement.

It should never be acceptable to dismiss sincere religious concerns as akin to “white supremacism,” and to selectively focus on the harm to only one side of a dispute. Both sides stand to be harmed, and neither can nor should claim “harm” completely. To survive these ongoing political contests, we must have the capacity to listen to others’ stories on their terms, not on our own.

Asma T. Uddin is an attorney and author of “The Politics of Vulnerability: How to Heal Muslim-Christian Relations in a Post-Christian America.”

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Maryland

How to watch Michigan State vs. Maryland (9/7/24): TV channel, kickoff time, live stream

Published

6 hours ago

September 7, 2024

Press Room

How to watch Michigan State vs. Maryland (9/7/24): TV channel, kickoff time, live stream

Michigan State got the job done in its season opener, but it wasn’t pretty as it hung on at home against Florida Atlantic. Now, it has to head on the road to open Big Ten play in what promises to be a tougher test.

· Watch the Michigan State Spartans on FuboTV (free trial)

· Watch the Michigan State Spartans on Sling

· Watch the Michigan State Spartans on DirecTV Stream

· Visit MLive’s Betting Home for latest odds & sportsbook promos

Michigan State is 1-0, but the road gets tougher now. The Spartans go on the road and start Big Ten play early in Week 2 with a trip to Maryland. The Terrapins have a new look this year without quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa but looked strong in their season-opener against Howard last week.

· Who: Michigan State at Maryland

· When: 3:30 p.m.

· Where: SECU Stadium, College Park, Maryland

· Twitter: Follow Matt Wenzel

· Live updates: Beginning at 2:30 p.m. at mlive.com/spartans

· Latest line: Maryland -9.5

TV Network: Big Ten Network

Streaming options:

· FuboTV is offering $30 off the first month for all U.S. plans. Sign up to get your favorite TV shows, live sports events, and much more

· Sling currently has an offer of $20 for the first month of subscription and has streaming coverage of live sports, news and entertainment.

· DirecTV Stream offers live sports, news and on demand TV.

Five must-reads before kickoff:

* Michigan State lost two members of its secondary, Dillon Tatum and Khalil Majeed, to long-term injuries in its season opener. The team is turning to some new faces to fill in the holes from those injuries.

* Alex VanSumeren was once Michigan State’s top-rated recruit, but he’s been seldom seen on the field due to injuries. Now, though, he’s healthy and making his mark on the Spartans’ defensive line.

* Aidan Chiles’ 10-completion, two-interception performance in Michigan State’s season-opener was his “floor,” according to offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren, who has a plan to improve the quarterback’s performance going forward.

* Jonathan Smith had a name for Week 1 in college football: overreaction Saturday. He’s cautioning fans not to put too much stock into an opening performance that likely underwhelmed many.

* The run game and discipline are two of Matt Wenzel’s five things to watch in this week’s matchup.

Michigan State

* Passing: Aidan Chiles 10-14, 114 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT

* Rushing: Kay’ron Lynch-Adams 9 rush, 101 yards, 1 TD

* Receiving: Michael Masunas 2 rec., 29 yards, 0 TD

* Tackles: Angelo Grose 12

* Sacks: Khris Bogle 1.5

* Interceptions: Grose, Nikai Martinez 1

Maryland

* Passing: Billy Edwards Jr. 20-27, 311 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT

* Rushing: Roman Hemby 14 rush, 66 yards, 1 TD

* Receiving: Tai Felton 7 rec., 178 yards, 2 TD

* Tackles: Glendon Miller 6

* Sacks: None

* Interceptions: Ruben Hyppolite II, Miller 1

Friday, Sept. 6

Western Illinois at Indiana

Duke at Northwestern

Saturday, Sept. 7

Texas at Michigan, noon (FOX)

Rhode Island at Minnesota, noon (Peacock)

Bowling Green at Penn State, noon (BTN)

Akron at Rutgers, noon (BTN)

Iowa State at Iowa, 3:30 p.m. (CBS)

Michigan State at Maryland, 3:30 p.m. (BTN)

Eastern Michigan at Washington, 3:30 p.m. (BTN)

South Dakota at Wisconsin, 3:30 p.m. (FS1)

Kansas at Illinois, 7 p.m. (FS1)

Colorado at Nebraska, 7:30 p.m. (NBC)

Western Michigan at Ohio State, 7:30 p.m. (BTN)

Boise State at Oregon, 10 p.m. (Peacock)

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Maryland

Pre-Snap Read: Michigan State vs Maryland

Published

12 hours ago

September 7, 2024

Press Room

Pre-Snap Read: Michigan State vs Maryland

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Michigan State has an excellent chance to make a strong statement this weekend that the rebuilding job under new head coach Jonathan Smith is ahead of schedule, if the Spartans can take down 8-point favorite Maryland on Saturday.
A Michigan State victory would be a strong statement within the football industry, but maybe not as strong from a fan perspective. I’m not sure Maryland’s football brand is as respected in the state of Michigan and regionally as it should be, for a program that has gone 8-5 in the past two seasons and defeated Auburn and North Carolina State in bowl games the past two years.
Maryland is good. The Terrapins are coming off a 50-7 victory over a weak UConn team last week. Maryland’s offense looked very good against a weak, soft, conservative UConn defense.
Michigan State’s defense was ahead of schedule last week against a mediocre Florida Atlantic offense. Michigan State’s offense was behind schedule, experiencing inconsistent accuracy and decision-making at the quarterback position, which was somewhat understandable considering it was sophomore Aidan Chiles’ first start as a college player. MSU’s running game also lacked consistency, especially in short yardage and in the red zone.
The big news from Maryland last week in my opinion was the excellent play of new starting quarterback Billy Edwards. The 6-foot-3, 222-pound redshirt-junior had waited behind the outgoing, record-breaking Taulia Tagovailoa for three years. Tagovailoa left Maryland as the Big Ten’s all-time passing leader. He went undrafted and is now playing in the CFL.
Edwards looked good last week. He’s strong in the pocket, is a physical ball carrier on designed runs or scrambles. He was accurate over the middle on intermediate routes, and seemed to do a good job processing coverages, although UConn’s coverages were simple, slow and soft.
I saw this Michigan State vs Maryland game as a swing game on the schedule prior to the season. But considering how well Edwards and his receivers looked last week, and Michigan State’s sputtering start on offense, this game goes from being a swing game to uphill slog for the Spartans.

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Maryland

Student shot in Joppatowne, Maryland high school

Published

20 hours ago

September 6, 2024

Press Room

Student shot in Joppatowne, Maryland high school

One teen shot another during a dispute in a Maryland high school bathroom Friday in what authorities called an isolated incident.

The victim, a 15-year-old student at Joppatowne High School, was in serious condition after being airlifted to a hospital, the Harford County Public Schools said in a news release, citing information it received from the county sheriff’s department.

A 16-year-old student whom police identified as the shooter fled shortly afterward but was caught minutes later nearby, according to the news release. Officials said no information would be released immediately about the weapon, which had not been recovered.

The state’s attorney has said the suspect will be charged, the release said, citing Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler.

Shortly after the shooting, the sheriff’s office asked people to avoid the area, but emphasized that the confrontation was an “isolated incident, not an active shooter.” A parent-student reunification center was established at a nearby church. More than 100 personnel responded to the high school about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Baltimore, Gahler said.

The fight happened two days after a shooter whom authorities identified as a 14-year-old student killed four people at a high school outside Atlanta. Wednesday’s attack renewed debate about safe storage laws for guns and had parents wondering how to talk to their children about school shootings and trauma.

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