Gov. Signs Bill Protecting Privacy at School
On Wednesday Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a new law that will help protect physical privacy at public schools.
H.B. 1156 by Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Jonesboro) addresses 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.
The bill also addresses sleeping accommodations for students on overnight school trips.
H.B. 1156 passed in the Arkansas House of Representatives last month, where it received very strong support from lawmakers. Last week the measure passed overwhelmingly in the Arkansas Senate.
Legislation like this is necessary, because in 2016 the Obama Administration issued federal guidelines directing every public school in America — including schools in Arkansas — to let biological males use girls’ locker rooms, showers, bathrooms, and similar facilities at school, and vice versa.
At the time, Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge were quick to denounce the federal guidelines and direct public schools in Arkansas to disregard them.
In 2018 the Trump Administration rescinded President Obama’s extreme policies. The Biden Administration has since moved to put those types of guidelines back into place.
Arkansas’ laws need to be clear when it comes to student privacy, and H.B. 1156 helps provide that clarity.
Every student in Arkansas has a right to privacy and safety.
Public school students’ school records are protected by law, because we value student privacy.
A student’s physical privacy should be just as important. H.B. 1156 will help protect the privacy of public school students in school showers, locker rooms, restrooms, and similar facilities on campus.
Family Council was pleased to support passage of H.B. 1156. We are grateful to the General Assembly for passing this measure, and we are grateful to Gov. Sanders for signing it into law.
H.B. 1156 is a good law that will help protect Arkansas’ students. That’s something to celebrate.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
Gov. Sanders Signs Law Protecting Children From Malpractice in Sex-Change Procedures
On Monday Gov. Sarah Sanders signed a law that will help protect children from medical malpractice in dangerous sex-change procedures.
S.B. 199 — which is is now Act 274 of 2023 — by Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R – Branch) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) lets a child who undergoes a sex-change procedure sue the healthcare provider who performed procedure if the child suffers any injury as a result.
Act 274 would let a child file a lawsuit if he or she experiences:
- A physical or physiological injury from the sex-change procedure
- A psychological or emotional injury from the sex-change procedure
- An injury from treatments related to the sex-change procedure
- An injury from the after-effects of the sex-change procedure
Act 274 also outlines informed-consent processes for sex-change surgeries, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones, and it contains protections for healthcare providers who decline to perform sex-reassignment procedures.
More and more, scientific evidence shows sex-reassignment procedures are harmful to children.
Research published this year calls into question the original studies that encouraged doctors to give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children with gender dysphoria.
In 2021 a major hospital in Sweden announced that it would no longer give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids.
Last year the U.K.’s National Health Services closed its Tavistock gender clinic that gave puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children for many years. Families have indicated their children were subjected to sex-reassignment at that clinic despite an obvious lack of scientific evidence in favor of the procedures and inadequate mental health screenings for children with gender dysphoria.
A gender-identity clinic in Scotland faces similar accusations from former patients who say healthcare professionals rushed them into sex-change procedures.
And last July the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally added a warning label to puberty blockers in America after biological girls developed symptoms of tumor-like masses in the brain.
Act 274 will help protect children, and it will provide them and their families with legal recourse if they are injured by a sex-change procedure.