A bill to limit when a teacher can use a student’s preferred name and pronoun has cleared the Arkansas Senate. The "Given Name Act” would require a teacher to obtain written permission from a parent before using a name or pronoun different from one aligning with the sex on a student's birth certificate.
Teachers who violate this policy can face legal action. Under the bill, educators are still allowed to opt out of using a student’s preferred name or pronoun even with parental permission.
Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Little Rock, presented the bill. He referenced Meriwether v. Hartop, a case where a circuit court ruled that a teacher could not be compelled to use a student’s preferred pronouns.
“We're not going to do these things behind the parent's back,” he said. “And we are not going to punish teachers who in their heart sincerely believe that they could not in good conscience call someone by a pronoun that's not who they really are.”
During the question and answer portion of the bill presentation, Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, pointed out that the bill could open teachers to lawsuits.
“That's an interesting thing,” Sen. Johnson said, smiling.
“I remember something my dad used to say: 'Senator, anyone can sue anyone at any time for anything.'”
In speaking against the bill, Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, referenced her decades working as a teacher.
“[The bill] eliminates the spontaneity of teaching,” she said, explaining that nicknames like “sweetheart” would be barred under the bill. She pointed out that many teachers have hundreds of students, and logistically may have trouble following the rules.
“In my 30 years of education, I never saw a birth certificate,” she said. Chesterfield said it was "absurd" to ask teachers to look at birth certificates and check to see if the name they were calling a student matched.
“I know many of you are hung up on the 'he' and 'she' and then 'they' and all that stuff,” she said. “But that’s not all this bill does. It puts an onus on teachers to try to find out something that is nebulous at best.”
She said she had LGBTQ students in her career, but that did not make her think less of them as students.
“The only thing that should matter is, does this child want to learn and what can I do to help him or her learn?"
Sen. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, spoke against the bill referencing the higher suicide rates among LGBTQ young people.
“We potentially risk outing these vulnerable children to their parents and peers against their will,” he said.
In closing, Johnson responded to Leding's comments.
“Yes,” he said. “It would potentially out a student if his parents or her parents did not know about what was going on at school.
"So yes, it would. And that's part of the intent of the bill, I believe."
The bill passed by a vote of 20 to 5 and now returns to the House before going to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders for a signature.
