North Carolina Republicans introduce bill to help parents prosecute librarians: report

North Carolina Republicans introduced legislation on Wednesday that would grant parents greater power over their kids' education and make it easier to fire and even prosecute faculty members, the News & Observer's Kyle Ingram reported.

Senate Bill 90 "also requires schools to inform parents if their child begins identifying as a different gender — a measure that was already included in the legislature's proposed Parents' Bill of Rights," Ingram noted.

"Under the new bill, parents would be given a new legal recourse for encroachments on their 'fundamental right to parent,'" Ingram explained, "which the bill defines as 'the liberty of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of the parent’s child.' Alleged violations of this right could be taken to local school boards and appealed to superior courts. Successful plaintiffs would receive a minimum of $5,000 in damages in addition to attorneys' fees."

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Moreover, Ingram pointed out that "public libraries would be required to give parents access to information about what books their child checked out and to keep 'material harmful to minors' in an age-restricted section. The bill would also make it easier to prosecute librarians for violating this provision."

SB 90 also targets the rights of transgender students.

"Section 14 would require licensed school personnel to inform parents if they believe the child is at imminent risk of suicide or is self-identifying as a gender different from the student's biological sex," the bill states. "Section 15 would clarify that referring to and raising a juvenile in a manner consistent with the child's biological sex, including related mental health or medical decisions, would not by itself be considered abuse or neglect."

Democrats decried SB 90, with State Representative Julie von Haefen (36th District) calling it "a license for book-banning committees to run rampant and groups like Moms for Liberty to get superintendents fired."

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Ingram's analysis continues at this link.