The "parental rights" onslaught

Today the Education committee met to discuss a slate of bills that strengthen “parental rights.” These policies will put more power into [white, conservative, Christian, Trump-emboldened] parents’ hands to meddle in public school affairs, gumming up the works, getting teachers and staff fired or worse. They would remove all DEI policies from public schools. They would ban discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity. They would create an opt-in for sex ed rather than an opt-out. They would require schools to alert parents to discussions of mental health between students and teachers/counselors. They would allow for even more scrutiny of school libraries.

Look, it’s a lot. And since I don’t have children myself, I don’t know the extent of what this would all mean for school policy on a daily basis, all I can draw from is my experience of public schools in the ‘80s and ‘90s, which is OBVIOUSLY far different from today’s experience.

What I glean from all of this is it would have a chilling effect on children’s ability to explore their inner lives out loud, to speak confidentially to trusted adults on matters that they can’t talk about with their families. Already overburdened teachers having to walk a dozen fine lines will have even more fine lines and thick walls built between them and their students for fear of retribution from some right-winger.

And of course teenage pregnancy rates will continue to increase by making this one small change to opting in to sex ed rather than out.

One speaker from Houston is a teacher’s assistant and she said, “have you ever been in a freshman sex ed class? Everything they learn is from movies, the internet. They need licensed instruction. And have you ever tried to get parental forms back for a field trip? It’s a nightmare.”

I clipped a few of the goofiest comments from the hearing. Please enjoy:

There were plenty of speakers who spoke against the bills, but these were the two testimonials that left an impression on me. First is from Daniel Hatcher of RecoveryATX:

That speaks for itself, really. I’m glad Daniel was there to testify.

Second is Andrew Hendrickson, Government Relations Coordinator for ACLU of Texas. His testimony spoke to me because I lived with a long-undiagnosed panic disorder that I lived with from age 5 until my mid-20s when I finally accessed SSRIs.

Overall, I’m sad that these bills will claw back progress we’ve made in supporting students’ mental health and identities that they feel safe sharing about at school but not at home for usually dangerous or traumatic reasons.

The bills were left pending in committee at around 7 p.m., when the hearing finally ended. Yes, I watched all seven hours.

The other hearing of note today was the drag queen storytime bill in the State Affairs committee, which would block public funding to libraries that host drag queens reading to children. I do love it when people show up in full drag to legislative hearings.

Shout-out to Brigitte Bandit, who shows up at the capitol every session to speak out on drag bills.

The bill remains pending.

Three Good Things:

1. I found some good online walking workouts that I can do while watching hours of lege testimony, so I’m not just sitting here.
2. I treasure bearing witness to all of the stories I encounter during these hearings.
3. Drag queens, obviously.