Alabama lawmakers claim LGBTQ school bathrooms are an 'issue', ...

[dutch777]

3. Sadly, all too many, are THAT stupid. What schools don't need is one more social issue to manage

If you haven't talked to a secondary school teacher lately, it is an interesting discussion to have. Almost all their time is lost handling issues that are not directly focused on educating, rather managing social and societal ills (or perceived by others as ills) that present themselves at school as a function of schools being a cross section of society. The teachers really don't have a chance to fulfill their education mission with all the other complexities and complications dumped in their laps by, choose one or more: dumb legislators, MIA parents, leaderless school boards, rampant drug and gang activity, street violence, poverty, etc.

It will never happen because almost no school districts could fund it (lest there be an even bigger taxpayer revolt against school taxes than there already is) but in many schools, there should be two teams, the educator team and the social worker team. So many kids in so many schools show up, for reasons completely beyond their control, suffering from issues that prevent them from engaging positively in the learning process. And of course, in many cases kids don't show up regularly or at all due to those same issues. A social worker team that could support kids to the point that they can be engaged learners, and not be distracting the teachers doing their job, could lead to so much better educational outcomes. What is really happening is so many kids just get passed along and passed over, rolling into adulthood significantly undereducated and underprepared, because societally we aren't effectively dealing with our issues.