Like all moral panics inevitably do, the right-wing movement seeking to reshape public education across the country has perpetually expanded its quest for new enemies to target.Libraries are purging books on increasingly flimsy grounds.Teachers are getting fired for absurdly trivial violations.State laws censoring ever more forms of classroom expression continue to pile up.Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight
The mania has taken another disturbing turn: Republican state legislatures are increasingly pushing forward with proposals that, in effect, would require schools to report to parents when a student shows certain signs of LGBTQ+ self-identification.This trend is documented in a new report from PEN America , which details that such bills have “exploded in popularity” and “become part of a concerted national campaign.” PEN America, like other critics, dubs them “forced outing bills.” On the surface, the proposals sometimes appear innocuous, requiring schools to report to parents on students’ “well-being.” Obviously, parents must be kept apprised of serious developments implicating students’ welfare and, in some cases, that includes matters of sexuality and gender.Ideally, however, this occurs as part of a healthy process in which parents and teachers both have the good of students in mind and collaborate accordingly.
But many of the bills go much further.
They aim to require by law that schools report on specific criteria involving very questionable measures of student welfare.Some mandate that schools notify parents if a student requests to be called by a different pronoun.Others require parental consent for any change in a student’s pronoun.Still others would mandate disclosure of any information indicating a student perceives their gender identity as at odds with their “biological sex.” The problem is that such measures put teachers in an awful position.
It’s not clear how a teacher should discern whether a student perceives their own gender identity in a way that triggers the legal obligation to report on it.And while student requests for pronoun changes raise legitimately complex issues, such proposals effectively mandate that teachers report on the inner lives of students at very sensitive moments.“These bills appear intended to achieve a particular goal: forcing schools to out LGBTQ+ students to their parents,” the PEN America report concludes, adding that they require teachers to “monitor students’ gender expression.” Suzanne Stauble, a high school teacher in northeast Florida, has experienced a version of this.Under the St.John’s County School Board’s policy, teachers must send a student to a guidance counselor if that student insists on a pronoun or gender-oriented name change, which initiates a process of parental notification.To Stauble, this puts her in the position of telling students she must report on them when she’d rather devote her full attention to lending them empathy.
“I feel like I’m not able to let my students know how much I support them,” Stauble told me, which could make kids feel “forced to get permission for who they are.” The American Civil Liberties Union agrees.In an analysis , staff attorney Harper Seldin concluded that “forced outing bills” deny students the “dignity and respect” of being called “the name and pronouns they want to use.” More than 20 such bills have been proposed this year, according to PEN America’s tracking data.
Though many ultimately failed, Indiana passed a law mandating the reporting of any request for pronoun changes to parents within five business days, and similar laws passed in Iowa and North Carolina .Last year, Alabama passed a law saying schools cannot “withhold” from parents any information related to a minor’s self-perception that their gender identity doesn’t match their assigned gender at birth.Again, no one denies that parents must be apprised of students’ welfare.But these proposals attempt to dangle a legal sword over educators’ heads, creating impossible dilemmas.They also carry an implicit message: Teachers are out to conceal things about children from their parents, and only the specter of legal violation can compel teachers to do the “right” thing on students’ behalf when it comes to evidence of LGBTQ+ leanings.
Fortunately, some Democratic governors are stepping up in response.In New Jersey, Gov.Phil Murphy is suing to block such measures in several school districts.In Arizona, Gov.Katie Hobbs vetoed another version , telling young people: “You have every right to be who you are.” In Louisiana, Gov.
John Bel Edwards also vetoed an anti-transgender bill containing such provisions, arguing that it was “ fueled by ignorance and hatred ” and violated students’ “basic humanity.” One hopes for more of this kind of language from Democrats.It’s sometimes said Democrats should respond to right-wing education campaigns by pivoting to the need for more education funding and higher teacher pay.
But they should also articulate a moral alternative to the right’s culture-warmongering, and call it out for pitting parents against educators and flooding kids’ classrooms and schools with a McCarthyite atmosphere of fear, suspicion and anger.“These are just kids trying to be kids,” Gov.Tim Walz (D) of Minnesota, who worked as a schoolteacher for a long time, told me.
Walz said the right’s culture warriors are “making a judgment” that there’s “something wrong” with students “bringing their authentic self to the classroom.” “These folks are just making it hell in schools,” Walz concluded.
Unfortunately, these efforts will continue metastasizing — and their circle of enemies will grow ever wider.Moral panics will not have it any other way..
