Republicans Want to Take Trans Kids Away from Parents over Bathroom Violations
metroweekly.comsweeping anti-transgender bill that also banned access to gender-affirming care for minors, use of gender-affirming pronouns in school environments, and “Don’t Say Gay”-style prohibitions on classroom content.
Under the existing law’s provisions, students are barred from using multi-user facilities that align with their gender identity, although they may request special accommodations for single-user facilities if they don’t feel comfortable using facilities matching their assigned sex at birth.Students who violate the existing ban can already be disciplined or punished for “disruption of school activities.”But under Petrie’s bill, the parents of students who fail to abide by the rules and use sex-segregated bathrooms can technically be labeled “child abusers.”To achieve this, the proposed law adds an additional definition of what constitutes an “abused or neglected child.”That definition declares that a child is considered “neglected” if a parent fails to provide them with “education, which shall include a parent’s failure to properly supervise, instruct, train, or control his or her child and that failure is a substantial contributing factor to the child’s violation of the school board’s code of acceptable behavior and discipline.”As such, any transgender student who uses gender-affirming spaces when other children of the opposite biological sex are or might be present could see their parents charged with “neglect” for failing to control their child.Children believed to be “educationally abused” in this manner and their parents will be forced to undergo a temporary removal hearing, after which a judge may choose to temporarily remove the child from their parent’s custody and, in some cases into the custody of the state.If a judge finds that there is no evidence the child has been abused, an emergency custody order will be dissolved automatically, returning children to the care and control of their parents.
