Parents could sue school districts over violations of laws dealing with “divisive concepts” and gender identity under a bill in the Iowa Senate. (Photo via Getty Images)
An Iowa Senate subcommittee advanced a bill Tuesday that would allow parents and school employees to sue school districts for not following state laws prohibiting instruction or materials related to gender identity and sexuality as well as on stereotyping or scapegoating specific demographic groups.
The bill, Senate File 335, combines measures that were proposed in separate legislation discussed earlier in the session. The bill specifically highlights sections of Iowa Code that prohibit school employees and contractors from advocating or acting on “specific stereotyping and scapegoating toward others on the basis of demographic group membership or identity” as part of a 2021 “divisive concepts” law as well as the 2023 law restricting curriculum and teaching related to gender identity and sexuality for K-6 students.
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Parents and guardians of children enrolled in a school district, as well as employees of those districts, would be allowed to bring a civil action against a school district to prohibit the continued violation of state law, as well as directing the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners to revoke the license of the teacher or employee found in violation of state laws.
A process is already in place allowing parents and guardians to report schools and teachers that are violating state laws, going through an appeals process through the Iowa Department of Education and other state entities. However, some parents said this process was cumbersome, and that teachers and school districts continued to violate state laws while going through this process. Some advocates of the bill also expressed frustration that some appeals were ultimately resolved without finding the school districts or teachers in violation.
Courtney Collier, a Waukee mother, said she has had “many occasions where I have found things in my children’s education that I am concerned about and have no course of resolving it” because of current laws and policies on how violations of state law in schools are handled.
“While people like to say that parents are involved and parents have access, and parents have a voice, and you can opt out, and you can do this and you can do that — it’s simply not true,” Collier said.
Advocates with educational organizations said the bill was duplicative of the other measures already passed in previous sessions related to the prohibitions of “divisive” and LGBTQ-related topics in school instruction and materials. They called for the process to be allowed to play out through the existing systems.
Nathaniel Arnold with the Professional Educators of Iowa said while he supported keeping ideological ideas out of school curriculum, bringing these challenges over school material to court could present difficulties, as parents would be allowed to bring forth legal challenges that might fall outside the scope of schools and teachers actually violating state law.
“I know they took great pains when they did their divisive concept’s bill to try to get as specific as they possibly could,” Arnold said. “But divisive concepts are by their very nature, ambiguous and debatable. You’re never going to have anybody agree on everything, so jumping to court every time there’s an objection, I just don’t think that’s (feasible.)”
Republican senators on the subcommittee signed off on the bill. Sen. Mike Pike, R-Des Moines, said he has seen and been sent pictures of LGBTQ+ pride flags and other material in K-12 schools that he said are violations of Iowa law.
“There clearly are things in these schools that need not be there and should not be there, and I think are prohibited even now, yet they’re still up with no repercussions,” Pike said. “Obviously, the districts are aware of that. Flags doesn’t get up by themselves in large areas, such as gyms. So, you know, to say … ‘There’s already a law for that,’ but yet nothing’s being done. So we do need additional teeth to it.”
Multiple speakers brought up their opposition to the presence of pride flags in K-12 public schools. But Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, said pride flags are protected under First Amendment freedom of speech rights, and that topics like sexism, slavery and racial segregation or discrimination are still allowed in school curriculum under the “divisive concepts” law.
“I think you’re anticipating that you’re going to be able to sue left and (right), willy nilly, anything you don’t like going on in the schools,” Quirmbach said. “I think you will quickly find that any money you spend on legal counsel is going to be wasted. … I see no reason to pass this bill. I think it’s only going to create a lot of legal controversy, and eventually will not change what goes on in schools.”
The measure also includes measures related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices at higher education institutions, extending the prohibition on these offices to community colleges and allowing students or employees to bring civil actions for violations of this provision.
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