education

TN Governor signs bill to penalize public schools allowing biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams

Published

5 months ago

April 27, 2022

Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee “quietly” signed a proposal that will protect girls’ sports. The legislation signed in to law will soon implement penalties against public schools that allow males to compete on girls’ athletics teams.

Last year Governor Lee signed a measure “mandating that student athletes must prove their sex matches that listed on the student’s ‘original’ birth certificate” reports the Associated Press.

If a birth certificate could not be made available, the mandate asks the athlete’s parents to provide another form of evidence “indicating the student’s sex at the time of birth.”

The new legislation Lee signed “quietly” on Friday “without comment” adds penalties to the previous ban. The AP reports that according to the bill, punishment would be as follows:

Tennessee’s Department of Education would withhold a portion of state funds from local school districts that fail to determine a student’s gender for participation in middle or high school sports. The measure does not specify exactly how much money should be withheld by the state.

The bill will go into effect July 1, as Tennessee lawmakers are also advancing a separate bill to ban transgender athletes from participating in female college sports. Additionally, Republican lawmakers in the state are pushing for legislation that will protect teachers and schools when it comes to gender pronouns.

The legislators are pushing to exempt teachers from facing employment punishment and protect schools from civil liability if transgender students are not called by their preferred pronoun.

education

Teacher in Ireland imprisoned for refusing to use ‘gender-neutral’ pronouns

Published

3 weeks ago

September 6, 2022

Sara Carter Staff

An Irish teacher’s fight against the woke masses has landed him in jail. Enoch Burke allegedly was initially suspended on full pay from the Wilson’s Hospital School temporarily, after refusing a request from the principal to address a transgender student by “they” instead of “he,” according to Irish outlet Independent.ie.

Burke is an evangelical Christian who teaches at Wilson’s Hospital School, a high school that is run by the Church of Ireland. It is co-ed and caters to boarding and day students.

Burke continued to show up to school in order to teach, despite his suspension. As a result, the boarding school got an interlocutory injunction restraining order against him, barring him from coming in the building.

Still, Burke showed up every day to work. Then, “the school’s board of management filed a further application, and on Friday, Justice Miriam O’Regan ordered Burke to be arrested and brought into court” reports National Review.

In court, Burke continued to insist on showing up to school teach, saying, “I love my school. I am here today because I would not call a boy a girl,” the outlet reported.

Not going to work and teaching “is not something I will do. It is in violation of my conscience,” Burke added, claiming his suspension was invalid and that he would’ve had to “commit an act of gross misconduct” for it to be justified, according to the outlet.

“It is reprehensible that anyone’s religious beliefs could be taken as a ground for misconduct or gross misconduct,” Burke said. “Were I to obey the order of the board of management and the order of the court, I would have to accept that sticking by my belief in male and female is wrong.”

“It is not something I will do. It is in violation of my conscience,” he added, saying, “Were I to go into the school and bow to something I know to be manifestly wrong, it would be a shame and a disgrace on my part.”

Justice Michael Quinn ordered Burke be committed to Mountjoy Prison and remain there indefinitely “until he purges his contempt or until further order of this court.”

Burke refused to comply with the court’s order after the judge’s decision, saying, “I cannot purge my contempt by holding my Christian beliefs in contempt.”