aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

GA Parents Permission to Participate update

You’ll recall that the GA House passed a watered down version of the Parents Permission to Participate bill. This version would give parents the option to withhold permission for public school students to join any club, but it’s widely accepted and arguably demonstrable that its intent is to keep students from joining Gaya Straight Alliances.

Today the Seante passed its version with the more restricive original language:

State Senator Nancy Schaefer, desperate to see her restrictive Parental Permission Bill become law, had the Senate amend another bill with her original language as was seen in Senate Bill 149.

The State Senate today approved Senate Bill 413 but only after amending it to include Schaefer’s language.  The bill was passed on a voice vote meaning that no record of the vote was taken.

The bill now goes to the House where the House Education Committee will have the opportunity to remove Schaefer’s language, approve it or amend it.  Since the House has already passed a less-restrictive “opt-out” bill, it is hopeful that the committee will not accept Schaefer’s language and instead substitute it for the language they approved in HB 661.

During the debate on the bill today, Senator Schaefer said that the bill has nothing to do with Gay/Straight Alliances and is meant solely to involve parents in the decisions made by students.  However, Georgia Equality believes that Senator Schaefer’s action today was prompted by yesterday’s lawsuit by the ACLU against the White County Board of Education.  She was clearly misrepresenting the facts when making her statement.

Here’s the smarmy story of the White County Board of Ed.