The No School Discrimination For Hair Act passed through the House Education Committee on Jan. 28, moving New Mexico one step closer to outlawing discrimination against natural hairstyles and cultural headwear in schools and workplaces.
Filed as HB 29 and passed unanimously through its first committee, the bill would “prohibit schools to allow discipline or discrimination or different treatment, based on a student’s race or culture, or a student’s use of protective hairstyles or cultural headdresses,” according to the legislation.
The statewide push c
Laura Paskus
A bill that advocates said would increase accountability of peace officers who commit sexual crimes against people in their custody passed its first hurdle Tuesday.
The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee passed HB 156 along party lines with a 3 to 2 vote. House Rep. Brittany Barreras, an independent from Albuquerque who caucuses with Democrats, is sponsoring the bill. Barreras introduced the bill with a personal story about winding up in the hospital due to an officer’s arrest.
The bill will, if it passes, amend the criminal code that governs criminal sexual penetration in the second degree. HB 156 would add sexual penetration perpetrated by a peace officer on a suspect, victim, witness or detained person in the care or custody of any peace officer.
Respect New Mexico Women And Families Act Passes House Judiciary Committee With Majority Support
RNMW News:
SANTA FE House Bill 7, the Respect New Mexico Women and Families Act, passed its final committee Friday in the House of Representatives. This bill to repeal the 1969 abortion ban, passed the House Judiciary Committee on a party line vote, the eight Democratic members voted in favor of the bill and the four Republican members voted against.
House Bill 7, sponsored by Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena (D-Mesilla), Rep. Joanne Ferrary (D-Las Cruces), Rep. Georgene Louis (D-Albuquerque), Rep. Deborah Armstrong (D-Albuquerque) and House Speaker Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe), would repeal a pre-Roe v. Wade statute from the 1960’s that criminalizes abortion in almost all circumstances that is currently on the books in New Mexico.
January 30, 2021
A nondiscrimination bill to protect cultural hairstyles in the workplace and school settings received bipartisan support in the Senate Education Committee Friday.
The No School Discrimination for Hair bill passed unanimously in the Senate Education Committee Friday. More than one state senator expressed shock that discrimination around
cultural hair and hairstyles is still possible with impunity.
“We should’ve been doing this decades ago,” state Sen. Michael Padilla, a Democrat from Albuquerque, said.
Sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Harold Pope Jr., of Albuquerque, SB 80, protects children in public and charter schools and people in the workplace from discrimination based on cultural hair and hair styles, such as braids, locs, twists, and knots. Democratic state Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, also from Albuquerque and a co-sponsor of the bill, said the bill places “a duty on the [Public Education Department] to work with the school board.”