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An Indianapolis school teacher has teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana to challenge a new state law that prohibits instruction on human sexuality in grades K-3.
The ACLU of Indiana filed a lawsuit Friday claiming House Enrolled Act 1608 infringes on the teacher’s constitutional rights.
According to an ACLU of Indiana press release, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of Kayla Smiley, an Indianapolis teacher.
Smiley will be teaching grades 1-3 in a school within the Indianapolis Public Schools district starting in July, according to the lawsuit filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
The lawsuit claims that, in addition to First Amendment violations, HEA 1608 is overly broad, as neither “instruction” nor “human sexuality” is defined. According to the complaint, Smiley is unable to determine how to conform her behavior to the law so as to not risk losing her teaching license.
“HEA 1608 is written so broadly that it would be next to impossible for teachers to determine what they can and cannot say to students,” Ken Falk, ACLU of Indiana legal director, said in a news release. “In addition, teachers have a First Amendment right to express themselves as private citizens outside of the classroom, including in the school’s hallways, playground, or before and after school, but the vagueness of this law would certainly have a chilling effect on those rights.”
According to the complaint, Smiley maintains a classroom library that contains age-appropriate books across a diverse spectrum of subjects and concerns, including LGBTQ issues, such as biographies of Harvey Milk and Elton John.
The complaint is seeking a declaration that the statute is unconstitutional and an injunction preventing its enforcement.
HEA 1608 also requires schools to notify parents when a student asks for name or pronoun changes.
“This session, legislators were determined to target LGBTQ community members and to censor conversation about the LGBTQ community in schools (and) HEA 1608 was no exception,” Katie Blair, ACLU of Indiana advocacy director, said in the news release. “This bill, like others across the country, was modeled after Florida’s infamous ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law. LGBTQ students exist at all ages and in all grade levels and their stories belong in Indiana schools.”
The case is Kayla Smiley v. Dr. Katie Jenner, in her official capacity as Indiana Secretary of Education.
The case against HEA 1608 comes as another Indiana law relating to LGBTQ youth is also being challenged in court.
Senate Enrolled Act 480 prohibits a physician from providing gender transition procedures to a minor, or aiding or abetting another physician to do so, with limited exceptions. The ACLU of Indiana has filed a lawsuit against that legislation.
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It would be good if our 5, 6, and 7 year-olds could read words more complicated than “Apple” or “banana” before we try to get them to understand how to use their private parts appropriately.
Maybe they should be able to solve for “x” (2x + 3x = 10)
Before we reach them what their private parts can be used for.
Or maybe we just want to CONTROL their minds?!?
Thank you…and it goes much deeper…they are perverting the minds of OUR CHILDREN…
It’ll be interesting to hear various people try to defend why a 2nd grader needs a book about the life and times of Harvey Milk, or how a teacher can credibly claim any such book on Milk is “age-appropriate”. What’s next: “My Very First Little Book on Countess Elizabeth Bathory”? (That, as always, is a rhetorical question.)
Why would teachers be permitted to behave differently in the “hallways, playground” from the classroom? I’m still on the job if I walk away from my cubicle to the vending machine. Sometimes that vending machine emits a lot of heat; guess I should be able to take my top off; otherwise I’m facing a chilling effect on self-expression (pun intended).
Parents, do everything you can to help eliminate what little is left to public schools. Build home school networks with friends, if you don’t have time/resources to do it on your own. Help make the classrooms empty. It would be a dream come true for the Teachers Unions!
The level of delusion and silliness…..
You are so odd, Lauren B. You belong on Amazon Prime’s Shiny Happy People.
What’s the best Harvey Milk bio to read to 7-year-olds, Michael?
By the way, I appreciate the Shiny Happy People compliment, but the Duggars are nowhere near right-wing enough for my tastes. They also aren’t nearly in-bred enough. I come from six generations of cousin-marryin’, which probably explains why my left eye socket is a good 1/8 inch below my right. We all have our quirks.
Who’s Harvey Milk? I’d have to google.
A civil rights pioneer. Insert head-slap emoji
Civil rights pioneer indeed…but one who fought for civil rights that aren’t exactly essential learning for third graders, no matter what the cultist indoctrinator Kayla Smiley may believe. An “age appropriate biography of Harvey Milk” does not exist because it’s an oxymoron. Note that I singled out Harvey Milk and not Elton John. While it’s a slippery slope (not sure the enduring value of teaching 3rd graders about a 70s British rocker), John’s sexuality did not define him.
By the way, do we get to teach that Harvey Milk and his supportive mayor Moscone were assassinated by a fellow politician of the same party? Since Kayla Smiley’s entire goal is to teach young children partisan politics, do we get to teach them how routinely the left tend to harness their penchant for violence on one another…you know, in the interest of fairness and equity?
Maybe the book that teaches that it’s wrong to let your bigoted hate consume you so much, that you’re willing to shoot someone different from you? That seems an appropriate lesson, even for second graders.
Really?? Only to you that would be appropriate.
Heck, just tell the second grader there’s no Santa Clause or Easter Bunny.
Shatter their young minds seems to be your mantra,
It would have been nice to teach that to the transgender shooter of Nashville, wouldn’t it? Why can’t we see the inner workings of that creature’s manifesto? I’m sure it’s pages upon pages of kindness, inclusion, equity, and tolerance.
Lauren B: Russian Bot. Teach your children well
My uncle use to be one of the biggest drug dealers in NYC back in the 90’s. He moved to Indy in 2001 and changed his life. Is it ok for him to come to schools and read his biography and bring his friend who was a former pimp? IF we’re going to expose kids to everything about human desires and behavior, why stop with sexual preference and gender identity? Why not open the flood gates and teach everything but how to read and write? When and where did we go wrong, let alone how did these sorts of debates even become a topic?
What if we just got back to reading, writing and arithmetic at there grade level and leave the indoctrination to post secondary education?