Legislative Alert from Micah Clark at American Family Association of Indiana:
Getting it Totally Backwards
One of AFA-IN’s priority issues before the Indiana General Assembly is to protect Hoosier school children from the far-left agenda that divides children by race, encourages them to see every social issue through racial glasses, and degrades America as a perpetually racist nation.
As I shared previously, multiple polling sources find that this Marxist-inspired ideology is strongly opposed by parents. Ten states have already passed laws against what is generally known as critical race theory. Twenty others are considering legislation.
House Bill 1134 is the only “live” bill now that addresses this issue. HB 1134 is a bill that is supposed to protect children from divisive concepts and to empower parents to know what their children are taught.
However, a last-minute lengthy amendment has gotten it all backward. As passed by the House, HB 1134 now potentially punishes parents ten times more than a school. The bill’s author, Rep. Tony Cook (HD32), a former school superintendent, added a penalty of up to $10,000 if a parent tries to sue a school and loses. Whereas, if the parent wins, they could only recover up to $1,000 because of harm to their child at school.
No parent will risk a lengthy lawsuit, which already risks having their child ostracized, only to incur such a devastating financial loss if a court rules against them, perhaps because their attorney is outgunned by taxpayer-funded school attorneys. HB 1134 is supposed to empower parents, not terrify them. This parental penalty on pages 18, 33 & 34 needs to be removed and replaced with the previous lawsuit language in those sections.
Another problem with the Cook amendment, on pages 34-35, sets up a process in which a child can be counseled or referred to outside groups by not just a school psychologist, but any employee of the school for “intervention services” without written consent from the child’s parent. If the parental consent form is lost by a child or sent to an email spam folder, and the parent does not respond with written consent, the school can proceed with “reoccurring” “mental, social-emotional, or psychological health” “intervention services.”
This section also needs to be removed and replaced with the previous language of HB 1134 simply requiring prior written parental consent unless a child is in immediate danger. Schools routinely get prior written parental consent for field trips or for simply giving a child a Tylenol. They should do this for mental health services too.
Other changes to HB 1134 put less burden on school teachers regarding the posting of curriculum and that is good. But HB 1134 should not make things harder for parents.
The Senate will take up HB 1134 next week. You can call your State Senator to support HB 1134 and to ask that the bill be changed back to a more parent-friendly proposal with these two changes, as it was when it passed the House Education Committee.
You can call your Senator and ask them to change and support HB 1134 at 317-232-9400.
You can also find and email your Senator here.
Getting It Totally Backwards – American Family Association of Indiana logo
