From Judge Jill Parish's opinion Wednesday in Doe v. Alpine School Dist.(D. Utah), which strikes me as quite correct:
John and Jane Doe are the parents of JD, a minor student who attended Skyridge High School. [I couldn't find his age or grade in the record. -EV] On May 25, 2022, Mrs. Doe arrived at the school and attempted to check JD out of school; however, the Skyridge office staff informed her that the students were not in their classrooms because it was the last week of school…. [Mrs. Doe] located her son in the school parking lot after contacting his girlfriend….
Skyridge's Resource Officer, Mr. Sweeten, told [the Does] that although the district calendar indicated that the last week of school would follow a normal schedule, Skyridge had an informal custom of releasing students after only two hours of class time and of not enforcing attendance during that week. Administrators stated that this unofficial policy was followed so that students could check in with teachers about their grades….
The Does are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have raised their son under its doctrines and to follow its practices, one of which prohibits premarital sex. The Does had previously discovered that JD had begun having sex with his girlfriend and had placed restrictions on JD's activity to prevent him from having premarital sex thereafter, such as requiring him to be accompanied by other persons when he was with his girlfriend and requiring that JD travel to and from school with his older sibling. The Does learned that JD had had sex with his girlfriend in the parking lot next to the school during school hours three times during the final week of school.
The Does sued the school district and several administrators, alleging that their constitutional rights to parent their child and to free exercise of religion had been violated.
No, said the court:
