INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge has declined to block the enforcement of a new state law barring the teaching of human sexuality to students from pre-K through the third grade.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Hanlon ruled late Friday that claims by Indianapolis Public Schools teacher Kayla Smiley that the law infringes on her First Amendment free speech rights and is too vague to be enforced were insufficient to justify a preliminary injunction blocking the law.
Hanlon said teachers do not have unlimited free speech rights in the classroom. Instead, as government employees, their speech is limited to subjects and messages approved by the Legislature, he wrote.
“Ms. Smiley cites no authority establishing that an elementary school teacher has the right to speak in her capacity as a private citizen when expressing an educational message to her students,” Hanlon wrote in his 15-page ruling. “Without a substantial effect on protected speech, Ms. Smiley is unlikely to succeed on her claim that (the law) — on its face — violates the First Amendment.”
Hanlon also ruled that while the law doesn’t define “human sexuality” or related terms, there is a sufficient core of understandable meaning to those phrases that prevents him from striking down the statute for being too vague.
Indiana schools typically don’t provide any kind of sex education until at least fifth grade except for state-mandated programs focused on preventing child abuse.
The lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana in June.
Republican lawmakers approved the law this year during a session that targeted LGBTQ+ people in the state. It took effect July 1 after Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed it into law in May.
2 comments
Why not K through 12? No teacher should be trusted with teaching anything about sexuality to any student-period! Democrats are perverts and pedophiles. Abolish the Department of Education! NOW! It’s nothing more than a Democrat money laundering organization run by a lesbian pervert named Randy. Need I say more?
Finally a federal judge that stays in his lane. What is taught in school is designated to the STATES by the 10 Amendment. There is no provision in the US Constitution for a department of Education. It really is the Department to Bribe States to do as we say.As it is said, YOU CAN LOOK THAT UP! At least 90% of the current federal establishment is not authorized by the US Constitution. Take a little time and go read Article I, Section 8, where you will find the 18 Enumerated Powers of Congress. No where will you find nearly all of the federal departments We The People currently now pay to abuse guaranteed rights. By the way, the federal government has gone in debt so far we will never recover to bribe us to go along with their dastardly ideas. Think for your self.
Thanks to this judge for following his oath, the law, and the Constitution. What is taught in school and how it is taught is the domain of the STATES not the Federal establishment.