Some Kentucky legislators puffed up their chests last week because they called the cops on a transgender woman who used a restroom at the Capitol.
What big men they are – so intent on keeping our children safe from predators in our midst.
Except they don’t actually care about keeping our children safe from predators in our midst.
For the third year in a row, an omnibus bill to address teacher sexual abuse failed in the General Assembly.
Rep. James Tipton (R-Taylorsville) took up the issue after the Lexington Herald-Leader found that a majority of teachers who lose their licenses do so because of sexual misconduct.
Guess what? The vast majority of cases are not about gay or transgender people. Instead, they involve male teachers and teenage girls.
The legislation has been tinkered with a lot over the past three years, and it has broad bipartisan and teacher organization support.
House Bill 36 would stop problem teachers from being shipped from one district to another and ban nondisclosure agreements between teachers and school districts about teacher misconduct involving minors, including sexual misconduct.
The bill also would increase disclosure requirements about past misconduct and improve current training. Right now, teachers get some training, but not about inappropriate relationships between teachers and students. Incredible as that sounds, they still need it.
The legislature did pass two piecemeal bills: Senate Bill 120, which would make it clear that coaches have to report abuse and neglect, including sexual misconduct, and Senate Bill 181 would make it clear that students and adults can only communicate via already-approved communication means.
These are good steps, but they don’t do enough.
Tipton told my colleague Beth Musgrave that some people were still worried about false accusations. But there is plenty of due process to deal with that. Right now there aren’t enough ways to stop bad actors from floating around school districts.
Tipton’s bill needs to become a top priority for next session. Kudos to him for his diligence and patience on this matter.
But in this session, a lot of lawmakers went after after the things they think are dangerous, such as Black history, clean water, and transgender folks, who are, by the way, a tiny percent of the population just trying to live their lives.
What if instead they tried to stop the verifiably bad people who traumatize and abuse our children?
Once again, it is the height of hypocrisy to target a man wearing a dress in the Capitol while, as we speak, a man wearing pants somewhere is sexting with one of his students.
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Written by Linda Blackford. Cross-posted from the Herald-Leader.
