Credit Chas Sisk / WPLN
A bill that would reinforce the state’s abstinence-focused curriculum in schools is heading to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his signature. But its sponsors backed away from a provision that would have required parents to give permission before students’ could accept contraceptives in schools.
Sponsored by Republican Sen. Janice Bowling of Tullahoma and Republican Rep. John Ragan of Oak Ridge, Senate Bill 1392/House Bill 577 aligns with what is already the practice in Tennessee schools: It requires schools to state that while contraceptives may prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, only abstinence eliminates the risk entirely.
Credit Chas Sisk / WPLN News
The state Senate has approved a measure that would let guardians opt their children out of lessons on the LGBT community.
The bill requires teachers to give the families of students at least 30 days’ notice before offering any instruction in a curriculum on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“It is up to parents to decide what should or shouldn’t be in their family and taught,” says state Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon. “It is not up to government to it’s not our role to dictate how and what a parent would say is appropriate for their children or not for their children.”
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The bust is one of three that will be moved to the Tennessee State Museum. The others depict U.S. Admiral David Farragut, a famed commander in the Union Navy during the Civil War, and U.S. Admiral Albert Gleaves, who served more than four decades.
More than 30 citizens spoke during the public comment period in the hearing Tuesday. Many of them advocated for removal of the Forrest bust, in large part because of the message it sends to Black Tennesseans. Forrest was involved in the slave trade, a massacre of many Black soldiers at Fort Pillow during the Civil War, and the Ku Klux Klan.