Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed a bill into law last Thursday that requires schools to inform parents if their child requests to go by a different name or by different gender pronouns.
The Indiana bill HB 1608, dubbed the “education matters” bill, is designed to inform parents about the behavior of their children in classrooms. The bill also restricts schools from teaching “human sexuality” to students younger than the third grade.
“Parents should not be cut out of the decision-making, and schools should not shield a parent from knowledge about their child,” said Indiana State Representative Michelle Davis.
The ACLU of Indiana expressed strong opposition to the bill. In an official statement, the organization resented the fact that the bill will “broadly censor discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in pre-K through third grade.” They also argue that it is harmful for teachers to not affirm a child’s “gender identity.”
It shouldn’t need to be said, but children younger than the third grade do not need to be taught in school about sexual orientation and gender identity. It’s also obvious that teachers should not be keeping secrets between themselves and young children, especially when they are of a sexual nature.
Traditionally, policies in place at schools that keep certain information private between students and their parents are designed to protect children from abuse. But for the left, misgendering a child IS a form of abuse, and thus constitutes parents being left in the dark about their children. This is a dangerous lie, and Indiana’s law is a step in the right direction.
It’s also worth pointing out that a teacher’s job is to educate children and correct them when they are wrong. Because of this, a teacher should never play along with a student’s request to go by pronouns that contradict his or her biological sex. Just like they would correct a student who says something wrong about an educational topic, a teacher should correct a student and affirm their biological sex instead of their so-called gender identity.
