Bill Filed to Protect Teachers From Being Penalized for Declining to Use Students’ Preferred Pronouns

Legislation,

A measure filed at the Arkansas Legislature on Monday would protect teachers and faculty from being penalized if they fail to use a student’s or co-worker’s preferred pronouns.

H.B. 1468 by Rep. Wayne Long (R – Bradford) says that a teacher or faculty member who declines to use a student’s or co-worker’s preferred pronouns could not be held civilly, criminally, or administratively liable.

The bill would apply to teachers and faculty at public schools and state-supported colleges and universities in Arkansas.

Educators in other states have been fired and suspended for declining to use students’ chosen pronouns.

H.B. 1468 would help prevent that from happening in Arkansas.

You Can Read H.B. 1468 Here.

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Appropriation Measure Would Renew Million Dollar Grant Program for Pregnancy Centers

Abortion, Legislation, , , ,

A measure filed at the Arkansas Legislature on Monday would renew funding for state grants awarded to pregnancy help organizations.

S.B. 286 by Sen. Scott Flippo (R – Bull Shoals) authorizes $1 million in state-funded grants for crisis pregnancy centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and social services agencies that provide material support to women with unplanned pregnancies.

The bill also contains language clarifying that grant funding cannot go to abortion providers or their affiliates.

The Department of Finance and Administration would be responsible for awarding the grants, which would become available when Fiscal Year 2024 begins this summer.

S.B. 286 is virtually identical to a good appropriation measure the Arkansas Legislature passed last year. It ensures that the grant program that lawmakers authorized in 2022 will continue to provide funding for pregnancy help organizations in the coming year.

You Can Read S.B. 286 Here.

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Committee Passes Bill to Address Obscenity in Libraries

Current Events, , ,

On Monday the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a measure addressing obscene material in libraries across Arkansas.

S.B. 81 by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Russellville) and Rep. Justin Gonzales (R – Okolona) prohibits giving or sending harmful sexual material to a child. The bill also eliminates exemptions for libraries and schools in the state’s obscenity statute, and it clarifies how library patrons can go about contesting objectionable material at a library.

As we have written before, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies over its decision to place books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section while failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

Librarians have made it clear that they want to be free to share obscene material. The library in Jonesboro went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

Other public libraries in Arkansas have failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well.

Public libraries are supposed to be for everyone. More and more, Family Council is hearing from people who are deeply troubled by the obscene children’s books that librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.

Bills like S.B. 81 help address those problems.

The bill now goes to the Arkansas Senate for a vote.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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