As South Carolina’s new legislative session begins, a lot of stupid bills have already been pre-filed. For example, on January 9, the House is devoting one of its first committee meetings to discussing a bill once again targeting transgender youth. One of the salient features of the bill for those of us following education policy is that it requires school staff to out transgender students to their parents.
Of course, in an ideal world, all parents would know everything that was going on with their kids, and there would never be a disconnect between what teachers and parents know. In the real world, most reports of child abuse and neglect come from the schools. This is such a widely-understood phenomenon that it became a centerpiece of many arguments to physically “reopen” schools in the early days of the pandemic.
Unfortunately, although most parents and guardians are supportive of their children, LGBTQ+ students face more dangers at home— including violence and abandonment— than their peers.
Fortunately, school advocates are already voicing opposition to the bill, and SC WREN has some ways to help oppose that bill here.
There is also a raft of pre-filed school censorship bills, many from members of the SC House “Freedom Caucus”.
These latter bills don’t seem to have a great chance of advancing while legislators focus on the censorship/ educational gag order bill they nearly passed last session, H. 3728. That bill is currently headed for conference committee to resolve differences between versions passed by the House and Senate.
One of the six members of that committee is Adam Morgan, chair of the SC House Freedom Caucus. Members of that group, as well as the SC Family Caucus, have been responsible for both the overall narrative that “woke indoctrination” is alive and real and stealing the souls of our babies, and most of the worst aspects of the final versions of H. 3728 that passed the House and Senate.
It’s probably worth revisiting what Morgan has said in the past about censorship in general, and the then-proposed versions of what became H. 3728, but it’s also worth remembering that Morgan has been building a career on out right-winging the rest of the SC Republican party.
The other members are Senate Education Chair Greg Hembree, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, Senator Derrell Jackson, House Education and Public Works Chair Shannon Erickson, and Vice Chair of the Education and Public Works Committee Terry Alexander. If you know those folks, I encourage you to reach out to them as soon as possible. Other than Morgan, these are people who are generally open to reasonable discussions and who generally mean well when it comes to our public schools.
If you can make it out next Tuesday to testify, or just to stand in solidarity with other supporters of student and transgender rights, I’d love to see you! The House committee meets sometime in the afternoon.
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