Legislative Review

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Legislative Review

Special Report - April 21, 2009
The big news last week was a continued lack of movement on the Marriage Amendment in either chamber and final passage in the House of HB 88-Healthy Youth Act, which would overturn North Carolina's abstinence law. As amended in committees and on the floor, the bill would mandate the teaching of Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) in all 115 school districts in the state. Currently CSE is only taught in the 11 districts that have followed the procedure in the current law to adopt this method. The hallmark of CSE is teaching the use of contraceptive devices such as condoms. Some of the adopted amendments would allow parents to choose between AUM, CSE or nothing after being given the opportunity to examine both curricula. Parents would also be able to withdraw their children from any program at any time. HB 88 will now be sent to the Senate for consideration. You can access a more detailed account about the changes in this bill in the left column of this email.

The House Local Government II committee began consideration on HB 721-Carrboro/Housing Discrimination that would allow Carrboro to add "sexual orientation, gender identification, and gender expression" to its existing list of U.S. Supreme Court approved criteria for nondiscrimination housing ordinances. If passed, this would be the first instance of these terms in state law and would establish special legal protections based on "alternative" sexual behaviors.

The House Judiciary II committee approved HB 442-Parental Involvement in School Discipline that would require parents be given the opportunity to withhold permission from schools to administer corporal punishment to their individual child. Schools would also be required to "make a reasonable attempt to notify" parents before administering corporal punishment to any student. The bill will be considered in the House Judiciary I committee on Tuesday.