The latest piece of Republican-sponsored legislation out of Oklahoma would penalize teachers, opening them up to litigation if they teach anything "in opposition" to students' religions.
The measure, sponsored by Rob Standridge, a Republican member of the Oklahoma State Senate, would empower parents to sue educators who teach anything “in opposition to closely held religious beliefs of students.” Parents could sue for $10,000 “per incident, per individual.”
Any fines incurred by teachers would need to be paid “from personal resources” and they cannot “receive any assistance from individuals or groups.”
Teachers who fail to pay these penalties, according to the proposed legislation, are subject to immediate termination and would receive a five-year ban from teaching.
Oklahoma SB 1470 (to be introduced next week) would prohibit K-12 teachers from "promoting" any position "that is in opposition to closely held religious beliefs of students." \n\nViolators are on the hook for a minimum of $10k.\n\nhttps://legiscan.com/OK/text/SB1470/id/2484266/Oklahoma-2022-SB1470-Introduced.pdf\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/uizsPc7TRo— Jeffrey Sachs (@Jeffrey Sachs) 1643642030
Journalist Hemant Mehta, writing for the outlet OnlySky, offered a rather succinct explanation of how the legislation would ultimately handicap the learning process:
"A biology teacher who explains evolution could be ratted out by a Creationist who’s failing science class. A health teacher who educates students about different forms of birth control won’t be in that classroom for very long if an abstinence-promoting teenager is on the roster."
“A history teacher who correctly describes the Founding Fathers as a mix of religious and non-religious individuals could be a target of conservative evangelicals who believe Christian pseudo-historian David Barton’s lies.
"An English teacher who wants to challenge kids with controversial thought-provoking literature would be forced to stick to only the blandest books.”
Many have criticized Standridge and denounced the legislation as disastrous for education and a further example of the Republican-led effort to decimate public education.
A new bill in Oklahoma will fire teachers if they teach biology and offend Christian students\n\nTell me how republicans are different from the Taliban again?— flexghost. (@flexghost.) 1643822952
We\u2019re trying our hardest to be the least educated nation in the world.https://twitter.com/flexghost1/status/1488927493666918403\u00a0\u2026— Brad Frisch (@Brad Frisch) 1643835088
How does biology offend anyone? These people are out of control.https://twitter.com/flexghost1/status/1488927493666918403\u00a0\u2026— Grace (@Grace) 1643834890
I wondered how long it would be before we circled back to contesting evolution.https://twitter.com/jeffreyasachs/status/1488168654650978304\u00a0\u2026— Josh Moon \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Josh Moon \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1643746514
I get why people are so up in arms about this but this will literally change nothing about schooling in Oklahoma, it's been Right-wing indoctrination for decades already.https://twitter.com/JeffreyASachs/status/1488168654650978304\u00a0\u2026— \u2605Kats\u00b2\u2605 (@\u2605Kats\u00b2\u2605) 1643738485
Do you want teacher shortages? Because that's how you get teacher shortages.https://twitter.com/JeffreyASachs/status/1488168654650978304\u00a0\u2026— Alison DeLuca (@Alison DeLuca) 1643739393
Cue the satanists. This will be a clusterfuck. The entire curriculum will be taken out except for a few conjunction and pronouns that are inoffensive. How do they not see how ridiculous this is?https://twitter.com/jeffreyasachs/status/1488168654650978304\u00a0\u2026— thomas rayosun long \ud83d\udef9 (@thomas rayosun long \ud83d\udef9) 1643741665
Not only is there no way this is constitutional, it would literally make teaching science impossible.\n\nCan't teach evolution if you have a creationist in the school. Can't teach creationism if you have an atheist. Best of luckhttps://twitter.com/JeffreyASachs/status/1488168654650978304\u00a0\u2026— Akiva Cohen (@Akiva Cohen) 1643677706
This. Is. Insane.https://twitter.com/JeffreyASachs/status/1488168654650978304\u00a0\u2026— Jenny (@Jenny) 1643724470
Standridge has made headlines in recent weeks for sponsoring legislation critics have decried as draconian, detrimental to education, and perilous to public health.
In December, Standridge announced that he had filed legislation to "address indoctrination in Oklahoma schools." According to the Oklahoma State Senate's website, Senate Bill 1142 would prohibit public school districts, public charter schools, and public school libraries from
"...having or promoting books that address the study of sex, sexual preferences, sexual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual identity, gender identity, or books that contain content of a sexual nature that a reasonable parent or legal guardian would want to know about or approve of before their child was exposed to it."
The Senator, who has pushed back against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, also recently introduced legislation that would allow employees to make claims against businesses if they incur injury from being mandated to take a COVID-19 vaccine.
Standridge, whose family owns and runs a pharmacy, has said that those who require their employees to abide by vaccine mandates "should be liable for the results," stoking fears of adverse side-effects to vaccines that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stressed are quite rare.
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