In a victory for parental rights, a bill Thursday was signed into law giving Georgia’s parents the right to challenge books and other school materials that they find offensive.
“No later than January 1, 2023, each local board of education shall adopt a complaint class resolution policy for its local school system to be used to address complaints submitted by parents or permanent guardians alleging that material that is harmful to minors has been provided or is currently available to a student enrolled in the local school system who is a child of such parent or permanent guardian,” SB 226 says.
Specifically, the bill allows parents to file a complaint with a school principal describing what that parent thinks is offensive about certain books or classroom materials. The principal or a designee will then be responsible for considering the complaint, and deciding the merits of the complaint.
Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed that bill into law Thursday. It passed the State Senate with a vote of 91-67 a month ago.
The bill is part of a trend of reinforcement from Republican lawmakers that parents are in control of their children’s public school education.
Across the country, parents have objected to school curricula that includes Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other victimhood ideologies.
Some, like Gwinnett County’s Brenda Stewart, have been met with hostility by their local school boards, and arrested for their protests.
Perhaps the most infamous example of the trend is Florida’s HB 1557, called the Parental Rights in Education Bill, which was recently signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
That law bans teachers of 5-8-year-olds from teaching their students about sexuality and gender identity, for which it has been labeled by the far left as a “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
But lost in the controversy over the law is its other provisions, including one that “prohibits school district personnel from discouraging or prohibiting parental notification & involvement in critical decisions affecting student’s mental, emotional, or physical well-being,” and another that “requires … procedures to reinforce fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding upbringing & control of their children.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Brian Kemp” by Brian Kemp.Â
