A House committee advanced a bill Tuesday that would require written permission from parents before school employees could address students by their preferred pronoun or name.
House 1468, which passed committee last week, was referred back to the House Education Committee after its sponsor, Rep. Wayne Long, said the bill needed to be amended. The committee passed the bill on a voice vote with Democrat representatives Denise Garner and Vivian Flowers dissenting.
The bill requires school officials address students by their name listed on their birth certificate and the pronouns consistent with a student’s biological sex, unless given parental permission to do otherwise. Long said his amendment further clarifies school employees cannot be punished for not addressing a student by a preferred pronoun or name.
The House Education Committee also voted to concur with a Senate amendment Tuesday to restrict transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice at a public school. The Senate approved the bill Monday on a party-line vote.
The bill was amended in the Senate to clarify that students traveling on school-sponsored overnight trips must either share sleeping quarters with students of the same sex or be “provided single-occupancy sleeping quarters.”