History will look back on the 2021 Montana Legislature as a textbook example of unintended consequences. The session created a cottage industry for lawyers challenging — often successfully — and defending a spate of ill-advised laws that did everything from prohibiting college campus gun possession bans to an unconstitutional change in the way we elect state Supreme Court justices.
The latest case in point is Senate Bill 99, which requires schools to notify parents whenever sexuality will be discussed in the classroom. Seems straightforward enough. Just tell parents when sex education is being taught, right?
Not so fast.
It turns out Shakespeare has an interest in human sexuality. Who knew? Better let the parents know about English literature class. And when teaching the science of reproduction in biology class, the mention sexual organs is kind of unavoidable. Apparently teachers have to tell parents about that.
The new law has sent schools scrambling for legal advice (there are those pesky lawyers again) on just what they have to tell parents about their curriculum. The consensus in the legal community seems to be that it’s a lot. And those notifications are causing schools a lot of expensive headaches.
Our schools face big challenges. Those challenges got a lot bigger as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which sent a lot of teachers packing into early retirement and different professions. Many schools are still trying to fill pandemic-related vacancies. Being saddled with this bill is an unnecessary additional burden.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Cary Smith, R-Billings, said during committee testimony the bill was not intended to tell schools what to teach, only to notify parents about what they teach. But it turns out that can get complicated.
This bill is another solution in search of a problem — another culture war bogeyman dreamed up by the far right. The vast majority of Montana parents have always trusted professional educators — administrators and teachers — to make sound judgments on how to deal with sensitive issues of human sexuality in the classroom. And nothing has happened recently to change that.
When lawmakers meet again in January, at the very least they should amend SB 99 to be very specific about when parents have to be notified about school curriculum. And that should be very limited in scope.
Better yet, just repeal it. Our schools have enough to worry about without adding this into the mix.
This editorial solely represents the opinion of the Chronicle Editorial Board. The board consists of the managing editor, the publisher and several community members. The community members are non-journalists who provide input and help shape the board's opinions.
The board does not represent the views of the newsroom, and its opinions have no influence over the Chronicle's news coverage. To submit feedback on this editorial, email citydesk@dailychronicle.com.
Editorial Board
Mark Dobie, publisher
Michael Wright, managing editor
Richard Broome, community member
Renee Gavin, community member
Charles Rinker, community member
Will Swearingen, community member
Angie Wasia, community member
Let the news come to you
Get any of our free daily email newsletters — news headlines, opinion, e-edition, obituaries and more.
