A group of Texas state representatives signed a letter urging every school board to leave the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), alleging the group is promoting a “harmful woke ideology.”
“Today, I and other #txlege colleagues asked every school board in Texas to leave TASB. By remaining in @tasbnews, they are forcing our constituent’s tax dollars to be weaponized against them, their values, and their children by promoting harmful woke ideology,” Texas State Rep. Brian Harrison tweeted on Monday.
The letter began by mentioning how state representatives were “shocked” that the TASB took a year to leave the National School Boards Association (NSBA) after they had compared parents speaking up at school board meetings to domestic terrorists.
“We were shocked last year that it took the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) almost an entire year to leave the National School Boards Association (NSBA) after it sent an indefensible letter equating parental involvement at school board meetings to “heinous actions” which “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terorism” and called on federal law enforcement to potentially target parents,” the letter stated.
The state lawmakers highlighted the TASB new transgender guidelines.
“This month TASB released new legal guidelines related to transgender policies in schools. This dangerous legal advisory appears to encourage school districts to refrain from reporting child abuse and to obscure information regarding children exhibiting gender dysphoria from their parents,” they wrote. “In the guidance, TASB also may be encouraging schools to violate Texas’s recent law, the ‘Save Girls’ Sports Act,’ and allow biological males to participate in girls’ sports.”
TASB released a 13-page document of updated legal guidance for public schools to surrounding transgender students, which included sports participation, student records, and bathroom policies. The document also suggested that a school proceed with caution when a parent isn’t supportive of their child’s gender identity but to look for a solution that would satisfy all parties.
“It may be possible to reach an agreement with the student and parent that satisfies everyone: for example, schools have instructed staff to call a transgender student by the student’s preferred name at school but to refer to the student by the name on the birth certificate in all communications with parents,” the document stated.
The state lawmakers insisted that considering all the information they provided, local school boards must leave the TASB.
TASB is a state lobbying group for school boards that provides information and guidance to local school boards and help organize and lobby on their behalf at the state house. According to their website, all 1,024 Texas school boards are TASB members and have been for 30 continuous years.
The letter from the Texas state representatives comes after more than half of the nation’s state school board associations withdrew from the NSBA since the controversy over the letter they sent to the Justice Department.
The NSBA’s infamous letter to the Justice Department in September 2021 asked for parents protesting at school board meetings to be federally looked into, saying school officials were facing threats and violence at meetings. The letter requested that actions should be examined under the Patriot Act as domestic terrorism. The NSBA later apologized for the letter’s language.
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