Taking it out on the kids.

The Vatican says gay and lesbian relationships defy church teachings, so that logic must extend to barring gay couples' kids from school, a group of parents in Orange County, Calif., says. They have asked the local diocese to force St. John the Baptist, a Catholic school in Costa Mesa, to remove from kindergarten two boys whose adoptive fathers are gay.

The approach is "a straightforward assurance to any prospective parent that their child will be taught the fullness of Roman Catholic doctrine," the group told the school in a letter reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

But school leaders, who are standing by their decision to enroll the boys, said such reasoning would also mean barring children whose parents divorced or used birth control. "It's a slippery slope," said superintendent Gerald Horan.