The return of President Trump to the White House has brought back some semblance of normalcy to our world. Gone is the ridiculous pushing of transgender ideologies on kids with new executive orders mandating schools move away from such things. The state of Texas also has laws forbidding things like mandatory pronouns in schools. Now, one Houston-area districts getting themselves in alignment with those laws.
Conroe ISD recently got their policy in line with the times and is no longer accepting notes from parents that ask teachers to call their students a different pronoun.
Conroe ISD board member Melissa Semmler says this brings the district in line with what the law.
"That executive order from President Trump said there were no exceptions...I was worried if we left that provision in there, where notes could be accepted...that we might in violation and risk our federal funding," she says.
Schools and universities around the countries have been told to get in line or faces a revocation of federal funding. Harvard University has been one of the prime examples.
Texas has its own laws against it. Senate Bill 12, which was signed into law on June 20th, prohibits any DEI activities in schools, including charters.
This also helps take pressure off educators who are overwhelmed with large classrooms, and sometimes troubled kids.
"If we add a parent note on top of that, that will add a whole other layer of issues...because then you would have to monitor who has a note and who does not," says Semmler.
Beyond just the workload too, it also takes liability off the teachers.
"How many times will the pronouns change...because they sometimes change multiple times a year," Semmler says. "Then we have the teachers may abide by the notes, and that puts them in the line of fire between the parents and what they think is morally correct."
She adds this was well received by parents.
This also helps take some pressure off educators, who are already overwhelmed.