SB96

When you choose to be a parent, you are responsible for creating an environment at home where your child feels safe enough to share what is going on for them. This requires parents have to actually parent and they should not have the “right” to require schools to be a de facto parent that does the work for them. If we say we are about personal responsibility in NH, then this bills goes against everything we believe in. If a kid doesn’t feel safe enough to tell a parent something, then that is a reflection of the parent, not the school or the child.

I strongly oppose this bill. Having worked in schools with students, students don't inherently want to keep things from their parents, but these are the most important relationships in their lives and students fear rejection if they share things that might disappoint their parents, from bad grades to getting in trouble, to their gender identity or sexual orientation. Students might be minors but they are still human beings with a right to have trusted spaces to process through their experiences where the stakes are lower, so they are ready for the conversations with their parents, which will be the most important of all. If we take away spaces for students to process their own life experiences, we undermine safety and trust that they can have, and this can isolate students further. If a student isn't ready to tell their parents something, forcing the school to do it isn't going to make them tell their parents sooner. It's just going to isolate them from adult support to make thoughtful choices and could cause more harm to the student. This bill makes clear that our government prioritizes parents 'rights' over wellbeing of students, and young people deserve to be supported and represented in the law as well. There are so many ways around this forced mandate to help schools and parents work together to support students, and by and large this is what is done. Mandating this will harm these relationships and have a negative impact on the wellbeing of students.

Dear Committee Members, I'm writing to respectfully voice opposition to Bill SB96. As a parent I see no need to legislate a deeply personal choice in a child's life. If my children struggled with discussing any issue with me, I would never see it as the State's responsibility to force them to do so. Have faith that our friends and neighbors know best how to direct their own lives. Life Free or Die should be removed from our license plates if we've diverged so starkly from the sentiment at the core of that phrase. It is not the State's job or a school's job to involve themselves in deeply personal issues. The inadvertent harm that could be caused by this Bill is hard to quantify but shouldn't be disregarded. Often children struggling with these topics are some of the most at-risk demographics for suicide, and our State legislature should do nothing to tip those fragile scales by "outing" any person. Respectfully, Spencer Beane

I do not believe that it is ethical to force teachers to do something that would potentially jeopardize the safety and wellbeing of their students. Teachers should be allowed to use their own discretion in matters such as these.

This is the same bill from last year. Again, I disagree with putting teachers in the position of "outing" a child. This is a culture war bill that targets educators. I OPPOSE.

As an educator, I am dismayed to think that I might be required to be an agent for the forced “outing” of a student. That is not my role to play. I am there to teach, support, encourage, and champion my students, not narc on them if they reveal their sexual preferences. Please do the right thing and oppose this bill. Let teachers teach, and do not let their students' trust in them be compromised by this bill.

OPPOSE SB96 You are endangering the lives of LGBTQ+ students!! Trust teachers! Robin Helrich Hopkinton, NH

Students must have the right to confidentiality with trusted adults in the school system.

Students deserve a safe space with their own trusted adults and deserve to be given the respect that they can choose who they disclose information to. This bill would not only severe student-teacher relationships but also relationships at home. As a former student and a daughter, I would lose trust in my family if I found they did this behind my back.

“Live free or die” does not apply only to certain groups of New Hampshire citizens— it is a unifying force for all who were born here, are drawn to the state from elsewhere, and who choose to remain here. It is not possible for anyone to “live free” if being and expressing your authentic self is a dangerous act in and of itself, and statistics are grim (and deadly) for children and adults alike who do not have a single person or community to protect and love them as they are. Our schools have a responsibility to provide a safe learning environment for all of our kids. When schools are no longer seen as safe by kids who need them the most (and who this bill is targeting), not only will these kids be impacted academically— they will lose a critical community and lifeline that they will not be able to get anywhere else. Please reject the lethal message that this bill sends to some of the most vulnerable student populations in our state.

This is a terrible invasion of privacy by the state! It is totally contradictory to New Hampshire's live free or die motto. Teachers should never be put in this position as it endangers the mental health of students. Do not go down this path!

Please stop bullying children.

As an educator, I have been influential in making LGBTQ+ students feel safe, accepted, cared for, SEEN, and loved for who they are ESPECIALLY when they are not accepted at home. Any time a student can feel like themselves helps their development and mental health. Students NEED to feel safe in their academic environments. Period. Also, just like educators should not carry guns, educators should not be forced to be the Gay Police. Anytime young people are put in a position of alienation, society will eventually pay for the long-term negative affects of deteriorated mental health.

I oppose this bill which places an undue burden on teachers and potentially puts students at non-immediate but pervasive risk insofar as it requires educators to disclose information regarding a student’s sexual preference or gender identity. If a minor does not feel safe or ready to disclose these highly personal matters to their parents or guardians, it should not be required that school personnel do so. These topics should specifically be excluded from the bill.

I urge you to oppose this bill as it will threaten teacher-student relationships and Educator Code of Conduct.

As a school counselor in public schools and the mother of a child in public education I wholeheartedly OPPOSE this bill. I'm writing to express my strong opposition to SB 96. This bill is essentially a rehash of the legislation introduced last year, stemming from a Senate parental rights provision that unjustly positions educators as enforcers in the forced “outing” process of students. Much like the unconstitutional "banned concepts" law, SB 96 targets educators by imposing the threat of violating the Educator Code of Conduct if they fail to comply. While proponents of this bill argue that it merely calls for transparency and honesty from educators, the underlying implications are troubling. This bill promotes an environment of fear and distrust among teachers, who may feel pressured to act against the best interests of their students in order to avoid penalties. It is essential that our schools remain safe spaces for all students, where they can express themselves without fear of being “outed” or judged. This legislation jeopardizes that safety, placing unnecessary burdens on educators while undermining their ability to nurture and protect their students. I urge you to reconsider support for SB 96 in the interest of creating an inclusive and supportive environment for all students. Tamrah

This bill passing would be making students open up to even less people. Or also for students to hide who they are and not feel they can be them true selves fear of a school staff reporting to their parents. Some kids grow up in unsafe homes where their sexual preferences are not accepted and it could be very harmful for them. This can also lead to higher suicide rates in the lqbtq+ community due to the fact that they can not be themselves in fear of being outted before they are ready or it is safe to tell their families. Sometimes teachers are the only safe place a student has and if you take that away you are harming the student population.

I oppose this bill.

Teachers have enough to do and should not be forced to tell parents what their students obviously don’t share with their parents. Perhaps parents should learn to have conversations with their children and become better parents.

School is the only place I felt seen and valued as a teenager. This bill would have ruined that, and it is unbearable to think about the future students like me who will be losing their safe space. Bills like this only increase the risk for rise in child abuse and youth suicide rates. Protecting our children means giving them a space to be and to find themselves, to foster safe community, and to keep them safe.

These matters should be left to local school districts.

Our state should stand with our other local states and now allow the dehumanization of any LGBTQIA+ people, let alone the students of our OWN state! They are our future and we are treating them like criminals simply because they are being themselves! It's disgusting and I severely oppose this bill!

This is yet another mandatory "professional snitch" bill forcing public school employees to spy on and forcefully "out" LGBTQ youth, often to unsupportive parents. This could lead to emotional and or physical abuse of kids under the guise of "parental rights. Parents should know what is going on with their children but they should do this by keeping an open dialogue with their children and not relying on the power of the state to do their job for them. This is unwarranted governmental overreach and I urge you to vote no!