Utah parents could sue education officials or teachers for almost any reason under proposed bill

[RandySF]

A new bill in the Utah Legislature would give parents the authorization to sue schools or education officials for any perceived infringement of their rights as a parent.

SB157 from Sen. John Johnson, R-Ogden, gives parents blanket legal standing “obtain judicial and other legal relief,” to exercise their rights as a parent.

The proposal then lists several areas where parents would be permitted to assert their rights when it comes to the education of their children, including curriculum, textbooks, classroom materials, teacher training and courses of study among other things.

Johnson’s bill is stuffed with language to make it crystal clear that parents are the ultimate authority when it comes to the education of their children. Parents have the “primary authority and responsibility for the education” of their children, and the only job of state and local government is to “support and assist” rather than “interfere or conflict with” parents. The Legislature, school boards and public schools are given the mission to “respect” and “protect” the interest of parents.

The bill appears to create a legal free-for-all in which a parent to file a lawsuit and seek monetary damages if they feel any aspect of their child’s education steps on their rights as a parent or if they find it objectionable. That could include suing the Legislature for passing a law they think infringes on their rights down to suing individual teachers over an assignment in class.





https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2022/02/03/utah-parents-could-sue/

[samsingh]

1. Utah should get rid of schools altogether. they should learn from the gut

[kysrsoze]

8. Sounds like they're on-track. I think many teachers would find other work or locations under this.

[TheRealNorth]

2. For a party that used to complain about frivolous lawsuits....

They sure like to create laws that allow frivolous lawsuits.

[Me.]

3. So Is This Their Way Of Turning All Public Schools

into private religious ones?

[atreides1]

5. No

It's their way of deciding who gets to go to school! If you destroy the public school system, not all the children will be able to attend private religious schools...only those of the correct religion!

And the religious zealots on the SCOTUS will protect them...

[TheBlackAdder]

4. It's almost like they want to purge older teachers to install a buch of low-wage wingnuts.

[Solly Mack]

6. Right wingers sure do want to destroy public schools.

And have since school integration.

[Ocelot II]

7. So any knuckle-dragging nitwit who has managed to complete the process

of mammalian reproduction, something that is regularly accomplished by equally-sentient beings such as squirrels and goats, is an expert at all aspects of rearing young, such as teaching them to harvest acorns, eat kudzu, calculate the area of a circle, and analyze the symbology of The Scarlet Letter, as long as the latter reading assignment doesn't offend said adults, which it probably does because there's, you know, adultery, which means fucking, which is how reproduction is done among mammals. But anyhow, you don't need an expert to teach your offspring anything, just like a squirrel doesn't have to hire a teacher to teach its young how to find acorns, and for that matter, why should you take your kid to a dentist or a doctor, since you know so much about raising young on account of having accomplished the biological function of reproduction. Squirrels don't take their kids to dentists, ffs, all you need is a pliers. Fuck experts, they don't know anything.

[patphil]

9. If that's passed, it will be a tragic comedy.

Both devastating to the educational process in Utah, but incredibly funny if you don't live there.
Seriously, the Republicans keep finding new ways to fuck up everything.
It this law passes, it won't bode well for the children of Utah...or the teachers.
I give it a 50/50 chance.
Will stupidity win?

[BlueIdaho]

10. Maybe they would like to home school

All their little rat bastard children.

[Midnight Writer]

11. In unrelated news, more than half of Americans have reading skills below the sixth grade level.

They have no idea what their kids are learning or what they need to know to become a functioning adult.

[marie999]

12. They are going to learn very quickly that all religions will be able to sue.