As Daily Kos continues to cover, Republican lawmakers are eager to quietly retread on the progress we’ve made in social equity and diversity by any means necessary. Sometimes this looks like trying to demonize trans girls and keep them out of sports, for example, while other times, it’s about book banning (if not book burning) to try and erase books by and about historically marginalized people. Often, there’s a certain approach conservatives use to try and appeal to the hearts of parents—it’s about parental rights, they argue, saying parents deserve to know if their child joins an LGBTQ+ club at school or if they check out a book about queer people from the library. The idea is that by appealing to people in power who can actually vote—parents or guardians, in this case—it’s all too easy to forget that children and teenagers are… well, people.
A bill that’s been pre-filed in Oklahoma also hinges on this appeal to the rights of parents but takes it in a different direction. SB 1470, titled the “Students’ Religious Beliefs Protection Act,” aims to make it illegal for public schools to “employ or contract with a person who promotes positions” that are in “opposition” to the “closely held” religious beliefs of students. And we all know that more often than not, the “closely held” religious beliefs of a student are probably the closely held religious beliefs of the parents, too.
If enacted into law, the bill would allow the parent(s) in question to sue the school. This could include making the individual educator responsible for paying $10,000 or more in damages out of their own pocket, for each reported incident. The bill also says this amount must be paid by the individual and money cannot be pooled from “any individuals or groups.” If the teacher paid up but it was found they received funds from someone else, they could be banned from teaching at public schools in the state for five years.
Suppose the school doesn’t immediately comply with the petition and chooses to support the teacher in question. In that case, parents could refile a petition and include the names of all people involved in the school, pulling them into the sinkhole as well. This could result in those folks being fired and banned from working at public schools in the state as well. The purpose, of course, is to isolate folks and turn them against one another.
The bill would apply to grades kindergarten through 12. Notably, the language of the bill specifies the person in question could not promote these beliefs “in the classroom or at any function of the public school,” which assumably refers to activities like field trips. So, where is the line? Are teachers allowed to take students to science museums? Natural history expeditions? Show documentaries from reputable producers like PBS?
These questions go back to the core point here: Whose religious beliefs are we really talking about? How do we determine what it means to be “closely held” in a secular setting? At what point do we take into consideration the “closely held” religious beliefs the teacher or school staff might hold, and what if those beliefs oppose or simply contrast with that of one or many students in the classroom? Educators have enough on their plates as it is—worrying about the (personal) “closely held” beliefs of every person in their classroom is unreasonable and frankly inappropriate. Their job is to teach factual importation and develop critical thinking skills, not bend over backward to affirm the teachings of religion.
In practice, I feel pretty positive that these religious beliefs would come down to white Christian norms, though of course, the language of the bill doesn’t say that explicitly. Given the number of conservatives eager to erase LGBTQ+ people and people of color from school libraries, to whitewash U.S. history and literal genocide, and to suggest we should have genital examinations on student-athletes, it’s sadly not surprising that folks are trying to weasel in more rights and protections for Christian beliefs.
I can’t imagine this sort of bill will actually proceed far, but then again, in today’s climate, who can say for sure? We have to fight every one of these bills every step of the way because if they don’t move through the statehouse or senate, the dangerous ideas can travel like fire, and that’s a big danger in itself.