September 14, 2023
Surely the Iowa state legislature and its governor have better things to do with their time.
The recently-enacted “parents’ rights” law in that state includes book bans in school libraries, removes explicit instruction on HIV/AIDS in the classroom, bans discussions of gender identity in K-6, and requires teachers to tell parents when their students report, in confidence, that they were questioning their sexuality.
But that’s not all.
Public school teachers in the Hawkeye State now must obtain parental permission before using a child’s nickname in the classroom. By law, teachers must alert parents if their child asks to be addressed by a “name or pronoun” that is at odds with school records.
In one email, a school asked one child’s parents if it was okay if their daughter Kimberly could be called “Kim.” A parent of a high school student tweeted about getting a call from the principal to inform her that her daughter “Caroline” wants to go by “Carly” at school. In another email, parents were told “today, Joseph requested that he be called ‘Joe.'”
Is it any wonder that vacancies in our nation’s schools are getting harder and harder to fill?