Remember the goal is to remove anything positive about gays / trans kids, to remove any anti-bullying programs, with the goal of wiping out LGBTQIA visibility in society. That will lead back to the horrible abuse of kids who are different as in the past. We have to find a way to stop this. Remember this is the same school that had the fundamentalist religious person on the board sneak a religious film crew in to take video and interview students. Please look at the actions the board / school districts have taken against LGBTQIA students. The effort was described below by one person interviewed, but to put it in my own words, they want to roll back all advances in acceptance, tolerance, and equality of anyone who is not straight and cis. To remove all protections for kids who are different, who might be LGBTQIA, or not straight or not cis. It is to enshrine church views / doctrines into rules and laws. Return society to what as allowed in the 1950s, which these people feel makes go happy because it makes them feel happy, good, and important. Hugs. Scottie
“What I see driving it now is an ugly push to deny LGBTQ rights and identity that, in some states, is being enshrined in law,” he said.
The Keller ISD school board recently passed policies decried as discriminatory to LGBTQ students.
Timber Creek High School parents received an email Friday night saying that students would no longer perform the show this spring.(NBC5)
A Keller high school production of The Laramie Project — a play about the aftermath of the 1998 murder of a gay student in Wyoming — was canceled.
Timber Creek High School parents received an email Friday night saying that students would no longer perform the show this spring. The email did not provide an explanation.
Community members are now rallying to reinstate the production, launching an online petition that has received more than 1,300 signatures so far.
“This play is a poignant depiction of queer history,” the petition reads. “By banning this play, we are not only suppressing an important piece of history but also denying our students a chance to understand and empathize with the struggles faced by the LGBTQ+ community. … It’s essential that our education system works towards creating awareness about these issues rather than shying away from them.”
In the brief email to families, school leaders said they are “working on developing an alternative production opportunity for our students.”
“We understand that it is unusual for a production change like this to take place. Students will still have an opportunity to read, discuss, and analyze the play during the school day,” they wrote.
District spokesman Bryce Nieman said in a statement that the decision was “made by many stakeholders.”
“The decision to move forward with another production at Timber Creek High School was based on the desire to provide a performance similar to the ones that have created much excitement from the community, like this year’s Keller ISD musical productions of Mary Poppins and White Christmas,” Nieman wrote in an email.
Mary Anne Weatherred, whose son was supposed to perform in The Laramie Project, said she’s concerned about a pattern of anti-LGBTQ decisions in Keller.
If people don’t agree with the message of the show, she said, then they shouldn’t come watch it.
“But they don’t need to take it away from the kids,” she said.
The Laramie Project, which is often performed in high schools across the country, explores the community’s reaction to the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay 21-year-old University of Wyoming student who was attacked, tied to a fence in a field and left to die.
His brutal death became a symbol of anti-LGBTQ violence and helped fuel the fight for expanded hate crime legislation.
Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother and president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, said she’s seen a spike in attempts to cancel productions of the show in recent years.
“My heart is broken when people still refuse to see how important this work is,” she said.
Shepard said the play can hold particular resonance for high schoolers, who are only a few years younger than her son was when he died.
“It might scare some kids. And it might wake some kids up. And it might make kids want to make change — all of those things. And they have the power to do it,” she added.
Roughly 25 years since his murder, many lawmakers and local school boards are targeting the rights of LBGTQ students.
Keller school trustees voted last year to establish rules stating that district employees “shall not promote, encourage, or require the use of pronouns that are inconsistent with a student’s or other person’s biological sex.” This means someone could intentionally use the wrong pronouns when referring to a transgender or nonbinary child.
Before that, the school board approved a policy prohibiting library books across all grade levels that include the discussion of gender fluidity.
A Keller ISD trustee resigned earlier this month after parental outcry over a film crew that was brought into a school without families’ knowledge or consent. Parents were enraged when they saw the crew was part of an evangelical network from the Netherlands.
The Matthew Shepard Foundation’s goal is to “create an environment where people are afforded an opportunity to discuss the play and its messages, the hate they encounter in their own lives, and how they can work collectively to build a more understanding and compassionate community.”
“We know educators are worried about the current wave of legislation mandating what they can and can’t teach,” the association’s director, Jennifer Katona, said in a statement. “What’s concerning about these results is the potential impact of self-censorship. School theatre should be a way for students to explore diverse perspectives, which helps them develop empathy and critical thinking.”
A different North Texas district recently triggered national outrage when a transgender teenager was removed from his part in the school musical. The community rallied to get him reinstated in his leading male role.
Howard Sherman, managing director of the performing arts center at Baruch College in Manhattan, is an arts advocate who tracks and fights against instances of theater censorship in schools.
“What I see driving it now is an ugly push to deny LGBTQ rights and identity that, in some states, is being enshrined in law,” he said.
Hearing that Keller ISD wanted to instead put on a show more like Mary Poppins or White Christmas, Sherman said those are great shows that have a place on the high school stage.
“But they shouldn’t be the only kinds of shows because that is not preparing students for college, for the real world,” Sherman said. “Students shouldn’t be relegated to escapism or assumed to not be capable of handling mature themes.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
Earlier this month this same school district was infiltrated by an evangelical group who filmed students without their permission. A school board member who reportedly helped sneak in the film crew later resigned.
Texas high school production of The Laramie Project – a play about the aftermath of the 1998 murder of a gay student in Wyoming – was canceled, without explanation. School board has recently passed other policies that discriminate against LGBTQ students https://t.co/OFfyLKsQ3H
More than 25 years after the murder of Matthew Shepard, young people still face hate and death due to their LGBTQ+ identities. @KellerISD should be ashamed for cancelling "The Laramie Project," which shows how hate poisons communities. https://t.co/MVP9JCwlCq
Well, you can’t let good ChristStain children learn that the hate their parents are spewing lead to the brutal death of an innocent young man whose only crime was being born the way he was born.
One of the reasons for Theatre to be a part of our lives is that it causes people to think. Mary Poppins is not about thinking. White Christmas is not about thinking.
The Laramie project is intended to get people to think. For that reason alone, it would be anathema in Texas .
Meanwhile, the 2nd grade rendition of “Showgirls” (featuring pageant winners Marabelle and Lindsey!) will continue to be performed at the Timber Creek Saloon.
I still remember all those years ago when we had a memorial for Matthew Shepard. We were handed out stickers(which I still have) that read “We’re all Matthew Shepard” It’s the truth these days.
In the seventies, of the six plays we did each year, one was required to be a classic. After casting, but before rehearsal, Lysistrata had to be replaced with The Trojan Women due to one Harper Valley hypocrite.
What are the odds that they will “chose” Godspell or some other Christian-infused pablum? Not Jesus Christ Superstar, that is too “rock,” and not the Jesus-Is-My-Rock type, either.
This trash thinks he is both a Christian and worth to be a legislator. There is no Christian state! The US by the constitution can not have a state / national religion, and children who are not following their strict church doctrines are not filth. A 16 year old was beaten in a bathroom for being different! In the US. And this clown is proud of it. Is that what we want the US to be, to look like? I saw this and I was stunned at the absolute inhumanity of what he is saying. Hugs. Scottie
“We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state — we are a moral state. We want to lower taxes and let people be able to live and work and go to the faith they choose.
“We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote my district, and I’m going to vote my values, and we don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma.” GOP Oklahoma state Sen. Tom Woods, when asked about the death of nonbinary teen student Nex Benedict.
Listen to the applause below.
After a non-binary teen’s death, GOP lawmakers were asked why they obsessed over the lives of LGBTQ people.
State Sen. Tom Woods gave the worst possible answer: he wanted to “keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state.”https://t.co/HrIOkhRVXA
There’s a lot to be disgusted by here, but do not overlook the fact that Christian nationalist language is being used to justify the death of a non-binary student — with absolute authority & confidence. ———
That “filth” was A CHILD !! To use one of their own parlances, “That was one of God’s children” of whose demise this cruel, evil, self-righteous & souless creature glories in.
White Nationalists absolutely believe that. I remember having a step dad who was a licensed Pastor who was one of them. Blacks and Jews were also singled out as Satan’s spawn and therefore hating and even killing them was seen as righteous.
Dehumanizing people makes it easy to be cruel to them.
So my take away here is in your/Oklahoma’s definition of”filth “ is non binary children . The sooner they commit suicide or die off the better Oklahoma will be. It’s so damming Christian of you . You heartless cold bigoted snot . How the fuck can you even look at yourself in a mirror. No I guess you type cast no image
Well, they already passed a law here in Oklahoma to take away the option for non binary people to change their birth certificate and they proposed a bill this legislative session to do the same for the rest of us.
Please understand I read this article, but I can not go back through and colorize it. I have nothing to say I have not screamed already. Please do notice this is being driven by Christian hate and bigotry. The groups pushing this are proud of it, that they are Christians. Are they? Read about Vinny Langworthy, a trans boy followed into bathrooms with people trying to take pictures of him under the bathroom stall doors. Tell me again who are the real sex perverts? I thought Christians leaders were for keeping families together, but here they have broken up families as one parent needs to take a trans child out of state leaving the other parent behind. Sorry people there is a lot in this article, and I have reached over load. I am trying desperately not to cry, I have been up all night not able to sleep and I seriously I just want all the hate to stop. Please, just for a few hours at least. Maybe I will watch more of the Picard series Ron got me, but then … See I had almost cleared two weeks of old tabs tonight, I rushed through others blogs I saved, I answered comments, I was going good. But the last few stories of hate and bigotry have finally broken me. Hugs. Scottie
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Nex Benedict died on February 8, one day after a fight in a Owasso High School bathroom in which they were beaten. (COURTESY OF THE BENEDICT FAMILY)
LGBTQ+ community members in the state are vowing resilience with a message that “we’re not going anywhere” after the 16-year-old nonbinary student’s death.
As news broke this week about the death of 16-year-old nonbinary student Nex Benedict, who died after a fight in a school bathroom, crisis calls to an Oklahoma LGBTQ+ support organization more than quadrupled — with 69 percent of callers referencing Benedict.
As parents, youth and the larger community grapple with the news, Lance Preston, the executive director of the Rainbow Youth Project, said he wants queer youth to know they are well-supported in the state.
“We have an entire army that is standing beside them,” Preston said. “People are not going to ignore them.”
Benedict died on February 8, one day after a fight in a Owasso High School bathroom in which they were beaten. It is unclear if the incident was hate motivated due to Benedict’s gender, but the youth had reported increasing anti-transgender bullying throughout the school year after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed into law a bill requiring students to use a bathroom that aligned with their sex assigned at birth.
Owasso Public Schools said in a statement that school officials responded appropriately to the fight and have cooperated with the Owasso Police Department’s investigation into Benedict’s death. The district said that all of the students involved walked on their own to the assistant principal’s office and were medically evaluated, per school policy, by a nurse.
“While it was determined that ambulance service was not required, out of an abundance of caution, it was recommended to one parent that their student visit a medical facility for further examination,” the district said in its statement.
Owasso Police said Wednesday that a preliminary autopsy indicates Benedict didn’t die of trauma and that officials are waiting for the results of a toxicology report, which could take months.
The district declined to provide details about the disciplinary measures taken against students involved in the fight due to federal privacy laws. Benedict’s mother told The Independent that Owasso High School officials told her that her child would be suspended for two weeks for the physical altercation. She added that Benedict explained that the fight now linked to their death involved them and a transgender classmate against three girls, all older.
Preston said he has seen a shift in the parents of trans kids.
“It’s kind of been an awakening moment for them,” he said. “Whether they were supportive before, now they’ve kind of gone into that hyper-supportive mode to make sure that they’re doing everything right.”
One mom called Preston on Tuesday crying.
“She had misused a pronoun [with her transgender child] and corrected it immediately but was worried to death that that was going to be enough to harm her child.”
We send our children out into this world every day in fear of something like this happening.
Chelsea Richardson
Chelsea Richardson, whose transgender son Vinny Langworthy survived his own bathroom harassment in high school, made the decision to stay in Oklahoma and provide safe places for kids like her son by opening a bookstore.
Richardson was at her store, getting ready for her grand opening, when the alert about Benedict hit her phone. She felt her heart hit her stomach.
“We send our children out into this world every day in fear of something like this happening,” she said.
Langworthy was out as transgender for his entire time at Harding Charter Preparatory, about two hours southwest of Owasso. He socially and medically transitioned as he got older, and other students started to read him as male. One day, another student took a photo of his feet and legs from under a bathroom stall and posted it to Snapchat, he said. The photo was captioned with an anti-trans slur.
“It was definitely just a hard situation to navigate or always feel like you’re being watched,” Langworthy said.
No longer safe to use student bathrooms, Langworthy used the teachers’ bathrooms, a change that made him late for class or prevented him from using a bathroom at all. He started coming home with urinary tract infections.
Queer kids here are not safe in schools.
Vinny Langworthy
He graduated without a solution. Now 18, he said the news of Benedict and the alleged bullying they faced infuriated him.
“Students should be protected and taken care of no matter their gender identity,” he said. “Queer kids here are not safe in schools.”
Eridian Dempsey of Stand with Trans, which supports transgender youth and their families, said that bullied LGBTQ+ are often disciplined by schools rather than supported by them.
“That happens all the time,” said Dempsey, who is an intern with Stand with Trans, part of the organization’s Youth Advisory Board and its Therapy Assistance Program coordinator. “It’s essentially scapegoating the trans child even though they didn’t necessarily do anything and they were defending themselves if they even fought back. If they didn’t, why are they being blamed in the first place?”
It’s not clear if Benedict and their transgender classmate were in the bathroom together to offer protection to each other, but Dempsey recommends that trans students and their supporters take part in an effort called I’ll Go With You in which allies accompany trans youth into restrooms and other spaces where they may be concerned about their safety.
“They have buttons that people will wear to show that they’re willing to go to the bathroom to help keep trans individuals safe,” Dempsey said.
Although these efforts help, they don’t address why trans youth are targets of bullying and abuse in the first place. Dempsey said that state and local policies contribute to the problem.
“One hundred percent there’s no doubt about it that when the state says we are not OK with trans people living as who they are, then that tells the kids in the schools, ‘If you don’t feel OK with trans people, good for you,’” Dempsey said.
Benedict’s mother learned about the bullying the teen reportedly endured in early 2023, months after the governor signed a bill that mandated students to use only school bathrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth.
The bullying Benedict endured reportedly started in early 2023, shortly after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that mandated students to use only school bathrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth. (COURTESY OF THE BENEDICT FAMILY)
Rachel Laser, CEO and president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement that Stitt and Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters have contributed to the hostile climate against LGBTQ+ youth in the state through their efforts to integrate anti-trans laws and fundamentalist Christianity into public schools.
“Oklahoma approved the nation’s first religious public school, which will discriminate against LGBTQ+ students, and Walters appointed Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok, unqualified internet bully, to ban books and oversee school safety,” Laser said. “The hostile, Christian Nationalist environment Walters and Stitt have nurtured in Oklahoma public schools has created a permission structure for anti-LGBTQ+ persecution, and it’s no surprise that teens noticed.”
Cait Smith, director of LGBTQI+ policy at liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, said that when young trans people hear that lawmakers are debating their very existence in state governments, it is extremely harmful. They pointed out that last year more than 60 percent of anti-LBGTQ+ bills introduced into states nationwide specifically targeted youth.
“When we have anti-LGBT bills talking about what schools should and shouldn’t do, it takes away the ability of school staff and families to make those decisions among themselves, among the experts and folks that are closest to the schools and students,” Smith said. “Really, this should be up to families. It should be up to students in schools to be able to foster and find the right policies to foster safe and affirming environments at school.”
Nicole Pointdexter and her son said they were not in a position to stay and fight. The two fled the state for Colorado after Stitt signed a gender-affirming care ban for youth last May.
“They broke up my family,” she said. “I have two boys that still live in Oklahoma.”
Pointdexter and her ex-husband amicably co-parent their three children. In Oklahoma, Poindexter and her ex lived a five-minute walk from each other, and the kids traveled between houses. All of the adults, including the parents’ new partners, enjoyed family meals together. But the gender-affirming care ban made it impossible for Pointdexter’s trans son to stay in Oklahoma. Her ex-husband couldn’t leave his job. Her twin boys didn’t want to give up their spots on their baseball team.
“It was incredibly difficult to make that decision,” she said.
According to research from The Trevor Project, which works to prevent suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, 90 percent of LGBTQ+ youth in Oklahoma say that recent politics have negatively impacted their well-being sometimes or frequently. Forty-seven percent reported that they’ve been physically threatened or harmed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Only 31 percent agreed that their school was an LGBTQ+-affirming space.
“Young people deserve to go to school without fearing for their safety, regardless of their identity,” said Janson Wu, senior director of state advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project. “We hope that leaders in Oklahoma and across the U.S. wake up to the reality that targeting trans and nonbinary youth has real and dire consequences.”
When trans youth and their families hear about tragedies like Benedict’s death, it escalates their anxiety by reinforcing the message that it’s not OK to be trans, Dempsey said. Parents worry that they can’t keep their trans children safe in hostile schools with a hostile political climate to match. Parents with bullied trans children need to document each incident carefully, including which school personnel they asked to intervene and the outcomes of their meetings with those officials, Dempsey recommended.
I want those people who are going to school today who might be scared to know that there are people fighting for them.
Chelsea Richardson
They also said that parents should try to openly communicate with their children on an ongoing basis because children may not bring up that they’re being bullied in a conversation unprompted.
Smith wants trans students who feel scared in the wake of Benedict’s death to know that they’re not alone.
“It is scary to see this happen to a member of your community,” they said. “We are going to keep fighting. We’re going to keep pushing back against harmful policies. In the meantime, I want those people who are going to school today who might be scared to know that there are people fighting for them.”
Richardson wants them to know that, too. She has already received threats because she plans on opening a welcoming book store. She isn’t scared.
“I’ve never liked a bully, and I’ve never backed down from a bully,” she said. “So I’m kind of like … let’s do this. We’re not going anywhere. You’re not gonna bully us out of this state.”
I want to thank Ali for the link to a news site I had not seen. I found several important news article to read up on. Like this one.
First are we really going to do the hair length think in 2023? I remember the forced near baldness buzz cut I was forced to wear with the adoptive parents fought with the male hell spawn about their hair length, which they were allowed to wear long as the youth style was at the time. Native First People boys were forced to cut their long hair by white administrators at schools or care homes. It is crazy that something like hair length is still an issue. Short hair on boys and men is simply a way to enforce hegemony and the wish of some on the right to return to the 1950s. I really can not see how this is not discrimination? If girls can only have long hair, then it is discrimination against the boys. If it is only long dreadlocks that are singled out, then it is racial. But no matter, why does the length of hair matter to learning, to education? Does short hair mean your brain takes in knowledge better? I find the treatment the boy was put through to be inhumane and cruel. It seemed designed to break the boy and make him bow down to the authorities. But the article makes clear this is racial, this is against dreadlocks, and to enforce a near military hairstyle favored by right wing republican ideology. Hugs. Scottie
Darryl George speaks during a press conference before a hearing regarding George’s punishment for violating school dress code policy because of his hair style on February 22, 2024, in Anahuac, Texas.(KIRK SIDES/HOUSTON CHRONICLE/AP)
After a short trial, a Texas judge ruled that Barbers Hill school officials are not violating a new state law prohibiting hair discrimination.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated throughout.
A Texas judge on Thursday said the Barbers Hill Independent School District can punish a Black student who wears his hair in long locs without violating Texas’ new CROWN Act, which is meant to prevent hairstyle discrimination in schools and workplaces.
The decision came after a months long dispute between the district and Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School who has been sent to in-school suspension since August for wearing his hair in long locs. Legislators last year passed a law called the Texas CROWN Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of hair texture or protective styles associated with race. Protective styles include locs, braids and twists.
But the Barbers Hill school district successfully argued it can still enforce its policy that prohibits males from wearing hair that extends beyond eyebrows, earlobes or collars even if it’s gathered on top of the student’s head.
Judge Chap B. Cain III issued the ruling after a short trial in which lawyers for opposing sides argued over the legislative intent behind the CROWN Act. Lawyers for Barbers Hill said lawmakers would have included explicit language about hair length had they intended the law to cover it. Allie Booker, representing Darryl George and his mother Darresha George, said protective styles are only possible with long hair.
“You need significant length to perform the style,” Booker said. “You can’t make braids with a crew cut. You can’t lock anything that isn’t long.”
George exited the courtroom in tears, walking alongside his mother and several lawmakers who co-authored the CROWN Act.
“As I was walking down with Ms. George and Darryl, you could sense the anger, you could sense the confusion,” said Candice Matthews, the statewide chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats. “Darryl told me, with tears in his eyes: ‘All this because of my hair?’”
Greg Poole, superintendent of the Barbers Hill school district, declined an interview after the decision came down. In a statement sent through the district’s spokesperson, Poole applauded the decision.
“The Texas legal system has validated our position that the district’s dress code does not violate the CROWN Act and that the CROWN Act does not give students unlimited self-expression,” Poole said.
Poole also suggested that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on college admissions will have ramifications on Texas’ new CROWN Act.
“The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that affirmative action is a violation of the 14th Amendment, and we believe the same reasoning will eventually be applied to the CROWN Act,” Poole said.
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 40 years of legal precedent and rejected race-conscious admissions in higher education at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The majority found that the universities’ admissions policies, which use race as one of several factors in college admissions, violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which mandates that people are treated equally under the law. The majority of justices found that the race-based policies do not pass “strict scrutiny,” meaning the policies are not justified by a compelling state interest.
It’s unclear how the debate about the CROWN Act is analogous to that SCOTUS ruling. Unlike the college admissions case, Barbers Hill officials have not contested the legality of the CROWN Act itself. They have simply rejected a particular interpretation of the law. The Texas Tribune reached out to Poole to clarify his comments, but he did not immediately respond.
Booker said after the Texas ruling Thursday that she intends to appeal the decision. She also said she will file an injunction in a pending federal lawsuit filed by Darresha and Darryl George against the school district as well as state leaders.
During the trial, Booker called upon two witnesses: Darresha George and Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, who co-authored the CROWN Act and chairs the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. Attorneys asked George’s mother few questions, only asking her to identify her son and define his hairstyle.
Reynolds, however, was questioned at length as the two sides argued over the intent behind the law. Reynolds said he co-authored the bill because he was disturbed by Barbers Hill’s treatment of DeAndre Arnold, a Black student who was told he couldn’t attend his graduation ceremony at Barbers Hill High School unless he cut his locs. A judge issued a preliminary injunction in that case, blocking the school district from enforcing its policy in that particular case. Litigation is ongoing in the case.
“I felt compelled to file legislation to protect students who were similarly situated,” Reynolds said from the witness stand.
Attorneys for Barbers Hill repeatedly objected — with mixed success — to Booker’s line of questioning. They interrupted nearly every one of her questions to say they were irrelevant or that the intent behind the law was plain within the law itself.
“It would be an error to consider Rep. Reynolds’ comments as indicative of legislative intent,” Barbers Hill attorney Sara Leon said in her closing argument to the judge. “You do have evidence of legislative intent, which is the language of the statute, which does not mention length.”
Judge Cain ultimately sided with Barbers Hill, saying that the CROWN Act could have been written to say that individuals with braids, locs or twists are exempt from any hair length policy. He encouraged lawmakers to go back to the Legislature and file a new version of the CROWN Act that includes specific language about length.
The judge did not comment on the constitutionality of Barbers Hill’s policy, which Bookers had called into question during her opening and closing arguments. She said that the district’s grooming policy violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution because it is only applied to one gender. And she further argued that because the CROWN Act names a specific “protected class” of individuals with a particular hairstyle associated with race, the burden must be on the school district to prove that their grooming policy is the only way to achieve a “compelling state interest.”
“The district has not proven that the policy is tailored to serve those interests,” Booker said, citing an affidavit from Superintendent Poole that articulated the purpose of the dress code is to “teach grooming and hygiene, instill discipline, maintain a positive and safe learning environment, prevent disruption, avoid safety hazards, and teach respect for authority.”
In light of the ruling, George will remain assigned to in-school suspension, where he is allegedly denied instructional materials and hot food.
Before the trial, George said the experience has been isolating and damaging to his mental health.
“It feels lonely,” George said. “When you’re only stuck in one room for a whole semester it makes you feel some type of way. You see everyone else walking around talking and laughing and you can’t do that.”
And this scammer con artist who has been accused of falsifying the results of a “vaccine injury risk” study along with being debunked by the large medical organizations, is taking the political way forward rather than protect the children by telling parents the best thing they can do is get their child vaccinated. If you are anti-vaccine think about this, the only children at risk are the unvaccinated! What does that tell you! Hugs. Scottie
While measles cases are popping up across the country, nowhere has been hit as hard as Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, just west of Fort Lauderdale. There, a single case reported Thursday spiraled into a half-dozen infected students by Tuesday evening. John J. Sullivan, a spokesperson for Broward County Public Schools, said the school underwent a deep cleaning and was safe for vaccinated students to continue going to class this week.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo wrote a letter Tuesday that urged the parents of unvaccinated students to keep them home until the school is confirmed to be rid of measles entirely. He said the infectious period would likely be over by March 7, and that the district would provide materials to keep the students learning while they’re physically away from school.
Read the full article. According to school officials, around 11% of the students have not gotten the traditional childhood vaccinations. Ladapo, as most of you surely know, is infamously anti-vax and has been accused of falsifying the results of a “vaccine injury risk” study.
FL Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo issues deeply irresponsible guidance to community hit with measles outbreak: notes "high likelihood of infection" for unvaxxed kids but leaves it to parents to decide what to do. Reminder: ~1 in 5 who get measles will be hospitalized. pic.twitter.com/QRzKTRgLFu
FL surgeon gen says unvaccinated kids can continue to go to school.
This is *unprecedented* Unvaccinated kids need to stay home for 21 days during an outbreak. Why? A very real chance of infection, hospitalization, death or serious damage to the immune system.
Florida demon sperm "Surgeon" general who helped turn state into a petri dish of pestilence & ignorance defers to parents on if kids should return to school as measles outbreak hits a 6th unvaxxed child at school where 11% are unvaxxed. Read more at: https://t.co/7uQQlhZyUG
Measles is mainly airborne – a “deep cleaning” is theater, not protection. A sane state would forbid unvaxxed kids at school, but of course a sane state would have no unvaxxed kids except for the very rare ones who can’t tolerate or respond to vaccinations.
Not only is Ladapo’s letter to parents full of very bad advice (like deferring to parents to decide whether or not to expose their unvaccinated children to a virus that can be deadly, or allow those children who may already be infected to spread it to others at school), it’s appalling that nowhere in his letter does he urge the parents of unvaccinated students to get them vaccinated. How does this guy still have a medical license?
“until the school is confirmed to be rid of measles entirely”
I’m curious, since he doesn’t trust scientists to say what will help fight measles, who does he trust to say the school is confirmed to be rid of it? An exorcist?
It is a cult, the party of tRump, the maga thugs. This guy is a white supremacist Christian nationalist who wants to turn public schools into church right wing indoctrination camps, force everyone to live by his church doctrines, and teach racist stereotypes are real facts to children. Slavery was good, blacks are violent, bringing them to the US to learn Jesus was a good thing for them, type shit. The problem is the governor who got elected is the same and proclaimed the state a Christian state dedicated to Jesus, meaning anyone of a different faith or atheist don’t matter and can just leave or go to hell. He sees nothing wrong with the idea of the governor pushing his god / church doctrine on everyone. So this is who hired the trash above, and tried to give him two high level state jobs to push Christianity. Hugs. Scottie
“Guess who’s last? President Trump. This is a great example of the radical woke college professors and what they’re trying to teach our kids. They want to tell our kids that every conservative president was terrible and every left wing president was amazing. In Oklahoma, we’re going to make sure that our kids understand that presidential greatness is based on how the country performed while presidents were in office. And not based on what a leftist, woke college professor says makes a great president.” – Oklahoma education superintendent and avowed Christian nationalist Ryan Walters.
Walters recently hired Chaya Raichik of Libs Of TikTok infamy to help oversee Oklahoma’s public school libraries. He is widely expected to run for governor when Gov. Kevin Stitt is term-limited out of office.
OK Schools Chief Ryan Walters is fuming that 154 presidential historians rated Trump dead last of all presidents. He says he will make sure the children of OK know how wrong those historians are about Trump. pic.twitter.com/7nJRjpMidf
“In Oklahoma, we’re going to make sure that our kids understand that presidential greatness is based on how the country performed while presidents were in office.”
Because how well the country’s doing was a sign of God’s favor of our president? Dipshit believes there are no business cycles, no outside factors, so transition time or costs.
“In Oklahoma, we’re going to make sure that our kids understand that presidential greatness is based on how the country performed while presidents were in office.”
That’s funny. In his MAGAt circles, I thought that presidential greatness is based on how many pussies you grab ’cause you’re a star and they let ya.
“What the hell do a bunch of elitist libtard historians know? I only read one book…the Bible, and it tells me all I need to know. We’ll have much better historians in the future, after we finish burning down all the libraries.” 🙄
How many people died because he was too lazy to lift a finger to tackle a pandemic? Not like he even needed to do any work to that end since there is a whole bureaucracy of government to follow any directives given to them. Just say “do this” and it’ll be done, but even that is too much for him.
How many people died because he had already said “It’ll be gone by spring” and stuck his stupid-ass flag in it like a land claim? Wouldn’t want to admit he was wrong about something, thus you all have to die horribly.
How many people died because the areas first affected by the pandemic voted more for Hillary in 2016? Urban areas like New York, may as well have been independent countries given the absolute lack of aid provided by the federal government. Likewise when Puerto Rico was struck by a hurricane and they were more or less left to fend for themselves. How many died there waiting for relief that was never even sent?
This is why Trump is the worst. An ugly bastard child of malice and incompetence. Where past presidents could be defined as one or the other, he alone is both.
Conservative historians also ranked Trump in the bottom five so go ahead and teach OK kids another lie. You’re already teaching them that the Tulsa massacre had nothing to do with race.
BTW, Ryan Walters has the blood of that non binary 16 year old kid on his hands. The one that was killed a few weeks ago at the high school in the Tulsa suburb of Owasso. Apparently just for being Trans.
All that inflammatory anti Trans garbage that spews out of his mouth egged on all the hated of anyone different.
West Virginia GOP Passes Deranged Bill That Could Put Librarians in Jail
State Republicans are taking the war on books to the next level.
JOSHUA LOTT/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES
The Republican-controlled West Virginia House of Delegates has passed a bill that could see librarians facing jail time.
House Bill 4654 passed the chamber Friday by a vote of 85–12, along party lines. The bill would remove criminal exemptions for schools, public libraries, and museums that distribute or display “obscene matter” to a minor, even if the minor’s parent or guardian is present. Any employees of those institutions found guilty of giving minors obscene matter can face fines of up to $25,000, up to five years in prison, or both.
The incredibly short piece of legislation gives no indication of how the new rules would affect paintings or sculptures that feature nude figures, or books that include descriptions or definitions of sexual conduct. Obscenity laws are incredibly hard to enforce, because definitions of obscenity still largely come down to individual interpretation.
As a result, there will likely be more reports of obscenity, made by people who are either more conservative or just nervous about accidentally breaking the law. And since libraries and public schools often operate on very tight budgets, they are unlikely to have the budget to fight a surge in lawsuits.
“It is going to cost our counties and our librarians when these matters go to the court system,” House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle told The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. “Because this is still vague, I’m scared.”
“This is a very dangerous bill.”
House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty warned that the legislation could inspire many lawsuits over books that staff members don’t even realize are problematic. “The librarians on staff might not know if a book has obscene matter in it or may or may not have shown it to someone, but because it was in the facility and it was sitting on a shelf, it could still be prosecuted,” he said.
The bill has now been sent to the state Senate, which the GOP also controls (along with the governor’s office).
Republicans across the country have increasingly sought to ban books, claiming they are protecting minors from seeing inappropriately sexual content. But most of the books being pulled from shelves tend to discuss race, gender, and sexuality.
Seemingly innocuous texts have also gotten caught up in the fray. School districts in Florida have pulled the dictionary from library shelves for including definitions of sexual conduct and have drawn over children’s picture books.
There’s also the inclusion of museums in there, and “obscene matter” could encompass, say, the entire Italian Renaissance in paintings and statuary — never mind Mapplethorpe. Even the religious stuff has full nudal frontity, and that includes the madonna-and-child school.
A 16-year-old non-binary student in Oklahoma named Nex Benedict died following a physical altercation they had in a school bathroom with three students that bullied them since 2023. Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik is now being accused of sharing indirect responsibility for the hate crime for the fact that she helped cultivate a toxic climate of anti-LGBTQ+ hate at the school by targeting one of the school’s pro-LGBTQ+ teachers that lead to a “scandal” that rocked the small town. We’ll break down the details in this video.
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Scottie's Playtime 