OKLAHOMA CITY – State Senator Rob Standridge said he is worried that public schools are using their resources to indoctrinate students into the gay and lesbian lifestyle.
Standridge, R-Norman, is so concerned, in fact, that he’s written legislation that would ban books in public schools and school libraries that address topics such as gender, sexual identity and human sexuality.
Standridge’s bill, 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 bill was necessary, he said, to prevent school children from being exposed to information about sexuality.
“The purpose of our common education system is to teach students about math, history, science and other core areas of learning—all of which are further expanded on in college as students pursue their fields of interest,” Standridge said in a media statement about the measure. “Unfortunately, however, more and more schools are trying to indoctrinate students by exposing them to gender, sexual and racial identity curriculums and courses. My bill will ensure these types of lessons stay at home and out of the classroom.”
Senate Bill 1142 also includes a provision that would effectively blackball staff who don’t comply by terminating that staff person’s employment and preventing them from being employed by a public school for a period of two years.
“If not removed during that time, the employee tasked with the book’s removal would be dismissed or not reemployed, subject to due process provisions, and he or she could not be employed by a public school district or public charter school for two years,” language in the bill states.
The measure includes a provision that would allow parents to collect a fine of up to $10,000 per day for every day the questioned material remains on a school library’s shelf.
“Our education system is not the place to teach moral lessons that should instead be left up to parents and families,” Standridge said.
Standridge’s measure has already drawn serious opposition.
Toby Jenkins, the executive director of the Oklahomans for Equality, said his organization has targeted Standridge’s bill along with several other pieces of legislation that, Jenkins said, attack lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Oklahomans.
“We see this (anti LGBTQ legislation) every year and have for decades,” Jenkins said. “Nobody should be on record wanting Oklahoma to ban books. History tells us that is always a bad thing. And, always, the results end up being a disaster.”
Jenkins said his organization – which advocates and provides services for LBGTQ Oklahomans – believes Standridge’s bill would be harmful to Oklahoma families. He said materials which discuss sexuality and gender issues can help children and teens who don’t see themselves reflected in books or society. “The sense of isolation can be overwhelming,” he said.
He said Oklahomans for Equality would work to defeat the bill in committee. “We’re going to try to get reasonable legislators to see bills for their true purpose,” he said. “They are meant to be mean-spirited. They are not even good for our community.”
Oklahoma LGBTQ students have some of the highest suicide rates in the country, Jenkins said. He said school libraries offer a valuable resource for students who are seeking information.
“Once of the places that we have found that can be helpful and a great resource for LGBTQ youth, children and their families is our local libraries and school libraries,” he said.
Jenkins said books addressing those issues can help reduce the potential for suicide because individuals can see themselves and not feel isolated or stigmatized.
The head of the state’s library association said public schools already had policies in place that encourage parental involvement in selecting school library materials.
“We have policies in place in every public school in Oklahoma,” said Cherity Pennington, state president of the Oklahoma Library Association. “We’ve had those in place for more than 30 years.”
Pennington said OLA representatives were contacting lawmakers to discuss SB 1142 and other legislation. “Right now, we are just talking to our legislators to let them know how we feel,” she said. “I feel like we have good relationships with many of our legislatures. We are more than happy to talk to them.”
In addition to push back from librarians and members of the LGBT community, legal experts say it’s doubtful that Standridge’s bill would withstand a constitutional challenge should the measure become law.
“It’s probably not constitutional,” said Brady Henderson, former legal director of the ACLU of Oklahoma. Henderson, an expert in constitutional law who is now based in Wisconsin, said he didn’t see any way SB 1142 could be enforced in a constitutional way.
Henderson said Standridge’s book could also force books such as Christian family education materials and even the Bible out of a school library. “It’s so broad that if you really enforced it you would end up with viewpoint discrimination. And if, by chance, you could enforce it you would end up with all sources of free speech issues.”
He said the punitive measures on employment were also likely unenforceable because it creates a criminal level sanction.
For his part, Standridge told the CNHI news service that he expected the measure to end up in court.
“My guess is the schools won’t comply and the parents will have to seek injunctive relief. That will be up to the trier of fact,” he said. “They may well disagree with the parent and say reasonable parents would want their children to be exposed to transgender, queer and other sexually-related books. I would doubt that.”
For Jenkins, the fight over SB 1142 is personal.
“We are not some outside source; they didn’t bus us in from New York or California,” he said. “We are Oklahomans. Every year we are having to be vigilant. And once again, the Oklahoma legislature has decided to attack our families. They (lawmakers) want to strip any resource that could possibly be available to an Oklahoma family, so we take it personal. We never stand down because it’s Oklahoma.”
State lawmakers will return to the Capitol on February 7 for the opening day of the Second Session of the 58th Oklahoma Legislature.