Senator Rob Standridge of Oklahoma has introduced a bill that would allow someone to sue a teacher if that teacher offers a different view than the student’s religious beliefs.
The proposed act, titled “Students’ Religious Belief Protection Act” would allow parents to request that any books with anti-religious content be removed from schools.
Even topics such as birth control could be off-limits, along with LGBT issues, evolution, and the big bang theory.
An individual teacher can be sued for a minimum of $10,000 “per incident, per individual” and fines are paid “from personal resources” and not from school funds. Under the legislation, a teacher who is unable to pay will be fired, Independent reported.
There is no mention in the legislation as to which religious beliefs will be used to prosecute teachers who violate the act.
As reported, the act will be introduced to the Education Committee next week.
Referring to the act as “necessary for the preservation of the public peace”, the bill states that if passed, the law will take effect immediately.
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Meanwhile, Sen. Standridge introduced a bill a little over a month ago that would ban books that mention identity, sex, and gender from public school libraries.
It is important to know that far-right groups have been banning books lately.
A state representative from Texas put more than 800 books on a watch list, some dealing with issues such as racial discrimination and homosexuality.
Maus, Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic memoir about the Holocaust, has been banned in Tennessee schools for its “profanity”, partly caused by an image of female nudity.
The themes of the book, they said, were too adult-oriented.
However, the author brand this action an “Orwellian” move.
“There’s only one kind of people who would vote to ban Maus, whatever they are calling themselves these days,” said Neil Gaiman, a graphic novelist of Jewish descent.
