New law hits Kentucky books, affecting mental health for many Kentucky students.
All across Kentucky, SB150 is causing chaos. The bill primarily affects LGBTQIA+ students, but impacts many students’ access to mental health services in school.
“As English teachers, a lot of what we do for community building revolves around identity and who people are and we just had to cut some of that out just to avoid any potential issues and avoid having to report something about a kid that maybe they did not intend to share, simply and we wanted to avoid having any situations that could arise that could potentially cause issues for a kid,” English teacher Cassidy Cook said.
“All students will suffer from a lack of comprehensive education, which should include age appropriate sexual health instruction,” Communications Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, Angela Cooper said.
Teachers and administrators are trying their best to protect students from potential misfortunes from this law, but their hands are tied if they want to keep their jobs and not face legal repercussions.
“Right now, teachers aren’t being told, necessarily, that you can’t talk about things. We just have to talk about them in a more moderated way, so it’s a tricky one,” Cook said.
“Mental health is an enormous piece of the puzzle for young people of any persuasion. We know that something as simple as using a person’s preferred pronouns can be the difference between feeling accepted and feeling outcast among peers,” Cooper said.
“It’s also hard for the teachers, I know that they’re upset by it. I know they don’t want to abide by it, but they legally have to or they will lose their jobs,” senior Mia Zurschmeide said.
“I know that Mrs. Lloyd is a very open and respectful human being. And I think that she does a very good job of making you feel welcome as well. So you know, like there’s always that five group of students that are in her room because she’s just such a safe teacher and it definitely helped me so much,” Zurschmeide said.
“I know a lot of people don’t live in supportive homes and it’s very scary to see them go through something like this, to see them in danger all of a sudden because of a law,” Zurschmeide said.
Zurschmeide fears that many kids are going to be kicked out of their unaccepting homes on the off chance that a teacher finds out a student is LGBTQIA+. After this, the teacher must then share the information with a parent, leading to potentially dangerous situations for students in homophobic or transphobic homes.
“I’ve never really personally seen or heard anything that would insinuate that any students sincerely don’t feel safe. That could just be in my classroom. I do know that there are students who don’t feel safe, and I think it’s a matter of allowing people to be who they are publicly without having to worry about that,” Cook said.
“We celebrated the injunction we initially received to stop implementation of the bill. Every day transgender youth in Kentucky can access the care they need is a victory. Currently our legal team is preparing for oral arguments in front of the court tomorrow, September first, to fight for the injunction to be put back in place and the law to be stopped while the rest of the case goes on,” Cooper said.
The ACLU sued for rights to give transgender minors rights to access gender affirming care in the state of Kentucky. Before this, minors who were receiving care would have to taper treatments which would have caused mental and physical health to decline.
The ACLU urges students to remember that they do not shed rights at the schoolhouse gates.
