HB 1942, the anti-bullying "super" bill crafted by the House Public Education Committee, passed on a 102 to 34 vote in the Texas House tonight. The bill, by Diane Patrick (R-Arlington), is made up of elements from a number of different anti-bullying bills that were referred to the committee. The record vote is not yet available on the Texas Legislature Online, but Equality Texas Reports via facebook that the no votes were:
Berman(R); Cain(R); Chisum(R); Christian(R); Creighton(R); Crownover(R); Fletcher(R); Flynn(R); Garza(R); Geren(R); Hancock(R); Howard, Charlie(R); Hughes(R); King, Phil(R); Kolkhorst(R); Laubenberg(R); Legler(R); Lyne(R); Miller, Doug(R); Miller, Sid(R); Morrison(R); Paxton(R); Phillips(R); Price(R); Riddle(R); Schwertner(R); Smith, Wayne(R); Solomons(R); Taylor, Larry(R); Taylor, Van(R); Thompson(D); White(R); Workman(R) and Zedler(R)
I'm frankly shocked to see Senfronia Thompson on this list as she is normally a strong ally of the queer community. I hope this is an error or that, at the very least, she has a reasonable explanation for her vote.
One explanation might be an amendment tacked on by Rep. David Simpson (R-Longview) that requires schools, in teaching methods for identifying and preventing bullying, to teach students that physical altercations are a good way to respond to bullying.
More on HB 1942 tomorrow, when the bill will be brought up for it's second House wide vote, the last step before it's sent to the Senate for approval.
No comments:
Post a Comment