Recently, our friends from Alliance Defending Freedom testified before members of Congress about how public schools are undermining parental rights.
Over the years, we have seen pro-LGBT activists use public schools to promote transgender ideology to kids in many different ways. Our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom have spoken out about how schools are hiding important information about students from their parents.
On December 3, ADF Senior Counsel and Director of the Center for Public Policy, Matt Sharp, appeared before the Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and Workforce. In his testimony, Mr. Sharp discussed how the critical relationship between parents and children is increasingly challenged in America’s public education system.
You can watch his testimony here.
All of this reminds us why Arkansas has worked so hard to protect students and uphold parental rights.
In 2021 Arkansas passed Act 461 to prevent male athletes from competing against girls in women’s athletics at school. This good law protects fairness in women’s sports in Arkansas.
That same year, lawmakers passed the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act generally prohibiting doctors from performing sex-change procedures on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
In 2023 Arkansas lawmakers passed Act 317 to protect privacy in public school locker rooms, showers, restrooms, changing areas, and similar facilities by requiring public schools to designate these facilities for “male” or “female” use.
Legislators also passed Act 274 of 2023 letting a child who undergoes a sex-change procedure sue the healthcare provider who performed the procedure if the child suffers any injury as a result.
Arkansas passed the LEARNS Act overhauling public education in Arkansas, prohibiting critical race theory in public schools, and protecting young elementary school children from inappropriate sexual material in the classroom.
This year legislators passed Act 955 by Sen. Blake Johnson (R — Corning) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R — Perryville) protecting physical privacy and safety of Arkansans in showers, locker rooms, changing rooms, restrooms, and sleeping quarters in government buildings, jails, and in shelters for victims of domestic violence.
Taken together, all of these good laws protect children at school and elsewhere around the state. Public school students should not be taught to question their sexual-orientation or their gender, and schools should not lie to parents about what their children are learning at school. We appreciate Alliance Defending Freedom standing up for parental rights, and we appreciate Arkansas’ policymakers protecting children.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
