Canadian school can ban gay books in kindergarten, rules court

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) -- The school trustees of a Vancouver suburb had the right to bar three books about same sex couples from kindergarten and first grade classrooms, a Canadian appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The British Columbia Court of Appeals unanimously overturned a lower court's decision that Surrey, British Columbia's school trustees had improperly used religious grounds to block the books.

The three-member appeals panel also chastised both sides in the dispute, saying it was ironic they had drawn young children into an adult argument over morals and the "value of loving and caring family relationships."

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"It is hard to resist the thought that (kindergarten and grade one) children may have a better appreciation of that value than any of the contending adults," justice Kenneth Mackenzie wrote for the court in a 38-page ruling.

The appeals court is British Columbia's highest court, and groups that opposed the book ban indicated Wednesday they would likely continue the legal fight to Canada's Supreme Court.

Surrey's trustees barred teachers from using "Asha's Mums," "Belinda's Bouquet" and "One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dads, Blue Dads" as "recommended learning resources" in classrooms because the same-sex relationships portrayed in books were not suitable for five- and six-year-old readers.

A Surrey teacher who wanted to use the books and a group of parents challenged the order on the grounds the ban was illegally motivated by some school trustees' conservative religious views and opposition to homosexuality.

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge upheld the challenge to the ban, but the school district appealed and the court Wednesday said the judge erred by ruling that all school board decisions must be "strictly secular."

"No society can be said to be truly free where only those whose morals are uninfluenced by religion are entitled to participate in deliberations related to moral issues of education in public schools," Mackenzie wrote.

The appeals court noted that while the board blocked teachers from using the three books are recommended learning resources, they remained available for students in the district's school libraries.

In chiding the groups that challenged the ban, Mackenzie said "the parties appear to agree that issues of sexual orientation do not belong" in kindergarten or first grade classrooms.

"Ultimately this litigation has a certain 'Alice in Wonderland' quality. Like the Cheshire Cat, the issues slowly vanish on close examination," he wrote.

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