After expiring in the state House of Representatives last year, Tennessee Senator Stacey Campfield’s “Don’t Say Gay Bill” is now back with a vengeance.
The new bill, called the Classroom Protection Act, not only “prohibits teachers from discussing of any sexuality except heterosexuality in grades K-8” in the state of Tennessee, but also requires guidance counselors report conversations regarding students’ sexualities.
The provision teachers be required to tell a student’s parents if they believe “circumstances present immediate and urgent safety issues involving human sexuality” shocks me.
Look, guys, I don’t know if you remember middle school, but it sucks enough without adding the threat your teacher might out you to the mix.
The idiocy of banning any mention of sexualities other than heterosexual at a time when students are just beginning to explore their sexualities is so enormous, I don’t know where to begin.
The idea that, further, teachers who have striven to create a safe environment for their students would be required to out them to their parents if they were suspected of being LGBTQ is frankly insulting.
Schools are supposed to be resources for students to turn to, not institutions which leave already marginalized students alone and unheard.
In support of the bill, state Rep. John DeBerry said, “The basic right as an American is my right to life, my right to liberty and my right to the pursuit of happiness … Within that includes being able to run my home, raise my children as I see fit and to indoctrinate them as I see fit.”
With all due respect to DeBerry, I fail to see how anyone’s constitutional rights include inhibiting any other person’s, regardless of whether or not the former person gave birth to the latter.
All teachers wish for involved parents who will constructively explain controversial topics to their children.
Unfortunately, this is not the norm.
Sit in a middle school classroom for a day, and you will hear multiple mentions of homosexuality by the students.
Teachers must be able to give students resources to analyze the issues that directly confront them.
Generally, I am sick and tired of people trying to tell kids what they can and cannot know about.
Have we not learned our lesson from the catastrophic abstinence-only sex education programs which gave states like Mississippi the highest pregnancy rates in the country?
Refusing to educate students about the issues that affect them does not make said issues go away.
Instead, it sends them to other sources, often to bad information.
The years between fifth and eighth grades are critical for building reasoning skills and forming well-supported opinions.
Teachers must be allowed to guide students through the process that will make them well-informed and analytical citizens. Students do not go to school to be taught to think like their parents. They go to school to be taught to think for themselves.
A teacher should present as many viewpoints as possible as they really are so students can begin to form their own opinions.
A teacher should create a safe and supportive classroom environment. A teacher should help students reach their full potential.
Teachers should not shelter their students from controversy. Maybe if Campfield’s teachers had taught him to see multiple sides of a situation, he would be more understanding to the students and teachers who would be affected by this bill.