Adults in the committee hearing room spent hours discussing ways to affirm parental rights in Texas’ public school classrooms, but it was a teenager who wanted to school them on how some of the proposed legislation under consideration might do the opposite.
This wasn’t about empowering parents in their kids’ education, Marshall Romero, a sophomore at Alief Early College High School, told members of the Senate Committee on Education K-16 at the hearing in late February. “It’s about censorship, erasure, and control,” Romero said. “This will strip schools of the ability to foster inclusive environments under the guise of protecting parents. But let’s ask which parents, because they sure aren’t the ones with LGBTQ+ kids, children of color, or students who rely on schools as safe spaces.”
The February hearing featured a litany of Republican-sponsored bills that—under the banner of “parental rights”—could ban LGBTQ+ curriculum and outlaw anything deemed to be “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI), and allow districts to fire teachers or other employees who violate the law.
