Texas Lawmaker proposes new bill to force teachers to 'out' LGBT students to parents

Texas tea party state Senator Konni Burton has filed a legislation that would require public school teachers to ‘out’ LGBT students to their parents, according to the New Civil Rights Movement.

Senate Bill 242 states that teachers and other public school employees who fail to disclose a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity to parents could face discipline, even if the student requests the information be withheld.

Burton, who attended Fort Worth school, said on her website that she decided to review state law and drafted SB 242 in response to transgender guidelines adopted by the Fort Worth school district earlier this year.

The guidelines stopped school employees from disclosing a student’s transgender status to parents. However the guidelines were then revised after a hateful campaign ran by Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick.

“We found these provisions in desperate need of clarity and expansion,” Burton wrote on her website. “That is why I am planning to file a bill that rewrites these provisions to make it unequivocally clear that a parent has a right to full and total information on their child’s academic performance, physical, mental and emotional health, and more.”

“Further, my legislation will make it expressly against state law for a district to adopt policies designed to undermine a parent’s right to know. No parent in Texas should ever have to fight for the basic right to matter in their child’s life again.”

If SB 242 passes, parents will be entitled to “any general knowledge regarding the parent’s child possessed by an employee of the district.”

Parents would also have access to all written records “relating to the child’s general physical, psychological or emotional well-being.”

This could put many LGBT young people at risk of danger if they’re ‘outed’.

Texas Lawmaker proposes new bill to force teachers to ‘out’ LGBT students to parents

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