8 January 12–18, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Bill 1155, a Texas take on the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill that controversially be- came law in Florida last year. The introduced version of the bill states that “A school district, open-enrollment charter school, or district or charter school employee may not provide or allow a third party to provide instruction regarding sex- ual orientation or gender identity.” Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill, signed into law in March 2022 by Gov. Ron DeSantis, sparked national discussion regarding how much freedom teachers can have to introduce LGBTQ-related topics in the earliest years of grade school. Florida’s bill extends from kindergarten to the third grade, while Patterson’s bill extends through the eighth grade. Presented by Patterson in a statement on his website as an “improved Florida parental rights bill,” the proposed legislation also re- quires that schools provide parents with any health-oriented questionnaires before they are given to students. The bill also outlines a parent’s “right to withhold consent for or decline a health-related service.” In the announcement, Patterson hits on many of the points he has been promoting in recent months, including in his efforts to re- move a number of school library books he has deemed pornographic. “The sexualiza- tion of our children must stop,” he says in the statement. “Parents and taxpayers have spoken loudly over the past year-plus. The message is no more radical ideology in the classroom — particularly when it comes to inappropriate or obscene content.” Johnathan Gooch, the communications director for LGBTQ political advocacy group Equality Texas, says that Patterson’s use of specific terms such as “radical,” “ob- scene” and “inappropriate” represents ex- treme language that is “a weapon in itself.” “It’s not just about controlling what kids can and can’t read. It’s about controlling who they can and cannot be,” he says. “Am- plifying and repeating stigmatizing language is half of the goal for people who wish to see LGBTQ+ kids and adults erased from schools across Texas.” This new bill is the latest in a number of bills pertaining directly to the LGBTQ com- munity. Texas Attorney General Ken Pax- ton’s opinion that providing gender-affirming care to minors is child abuse was followed by a bill that seeks to re- strict the rights of parents to provide their trans children with the type of care many in the medical community favor. Another pair of bills seeks to make any business, including restaurants, that hosts drag shows a sexually oriented business, which would prohibit those establishments from admitting children. And it’s not just Texas and Florida that are in on the “Don’t Say Gay” trend. NPR re- ported in April that 16 states had similar bills in the works. Not all of those made it into law, however. Gooch sees the influx of political maneu- vering by lawmakers and proponents of these types of bills as an attempt to continue keeping LGBTQ issues in the shadows, away from the mainstream. “Every LGBTQ+ person was once a child. And our school system is set up to prepare children for the life ahead of them,” Gooch says. “Teachers and educators have used their training and experience to sculpt age- appropriate materials about orientation and gender — things like a book about two male penguins that raise a child, or a family with two moms — so why would we treat some- thing so ordinary like it’s taboo.” ▼ EDUCATION READING, WRITING AND GUNS TEXAS BILL WOULD EXPAND “CAMPUS CARRY” FOR GUNS TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS. BY JACOB VAUGHN A bill filed last week in Austin would allow public and charter school em- ployees to carry concealed handguns on school grounds. Under Sen. Bob Hall’s Senate Bill 354, as long as the employee is li- censed to carry a concealed weapon, school districts would be unable to adopt rules pro- hibiting them from doing so on its property. Hall, a Republican from Edgewood, filed a similar bill during the last legislative ses- sion. It essentially takes a years-old Texas law that allowed licensed gun owners to carry concealed handguns on college and university campuses and applies it to all public and open-enrollment charter schools across the state. At the time, he told ABC it was the next logical progression in the state’s campus carry laws to avoid making schools easy tar- gets. “Schools, known as a gun-free zone, might as well hang a neon sign saying, ‘If you want to harm kids, come in here,’” Hall told ABC in 2021. “The more people there are who can protect, the safer our society is.” Now, he’s back with virtually the same bill. “Senate Bill 354, Campus Carry, would simply allow law-abiding citizens with a li- cense-to-carry in schools in the places that are currently banned, such as inside school buildings, or on grounds or buildings where school-sponsored activities are happening,” Hall said in a press release. “This would be a critical measure that bans gun-free zones on school grounds that act as magnets towards those who wish violence against our chil- dren and educators.” Under the bill, school districts would also be unable to adopt rules prohibiting licensed teachers from keeping guns in their cars on school property. Texas has allowed school districts to have certain faculty members carry guns on the premises since 2007 as part of something called the guardian plan. Similarly, the school marshal program created by the state in 2013 allows school districts to choose em- ployees who are licensed to carry a gun to volunteer as school protectors. The program was in response to the 2012 Sandy Hook El- ementary School shooting. For about the last decade, these have been the only two op- tions for schools to arm staff members. Law-abiding, sane Texans aren’t gener- ally required to obtain a state license to carry a gun in public, but those with licenses can bring guns into locations that otherwise are allowed to restrict them. Rena Honea, president of Dallas educa- tion employees union Alliance-AFT, told the Observer last month that 77% of those polled in that organization were not comfortable being armed in the classroom. “Teachers cannot be expected to become highly trained law enforcement officers and use guns in a crisis without endangering stu- dents or themselves,” Honea said. The marshal program requires applicants to take 80 hours of training and undergo a psychological exam if they want to carry on campus. Of 1,200 school districts across the state, 84 take part in the marshal program, according to The Texas Tribune. Some 280 others have opted in for the less strict guard- ian plan, in which training is determined by local school boards. Just last month, the Keller Independent School District voted to implement the guardian plan at its school. If passed, Hall’s SB 354 would take effect. Sept. 1. But adding more guns to the equa- tion is something other North Texas school districts have been reluctant to do. To Casey Boland, a Richardson ISD teacher, arming school teachers and em- ployees doesn’t make them any safer. “Hav- ing guns in schools is dangerous,” Boland said. “Theft, negligence, etc., is too likely, and, unless a teacher also has combat mili- tary or SWAT experience, they are not quali- fied to use a weapon in an active shooter situation.” Boland isn’t sure that people outside of a school fully grasp what a law like this could mean on campus in real life. “I’m not questioning the good intention of the sponsor of the bill,” she said. “But I do question his understanding of what it is like in a school or classroom, because even most teenagers think this is a really bad idea. I’ve been asking them all afternoon.” ▼ GUNS, GUNS, GUNS UNLAWFUL MODIFICATION DALLAS MAN SOLD “GLOCK SWITCHES” TO POLICE OVER INSTAGRAM, SAYS U.S. ATTORNEY. BY KELLY DEARMORE A Dallas man was charged last week for selling Glock “switches,” de- vices that convert semiautomatic weapons into fully automatic ones, to under- cover officers. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, Jeremiah Dwyen Ashley, 22, allegedly conducted sales of ille- gal firearms both in-person and online. “He allegedly admitted that he was known around the neighborhood for selling switches on Instagram,” the release notes. Ashley was indicted on two counts of pos- session of an unregistered firearm. Glock switches, also known as “auto sears,” are small pieces of metal, smaller than a quarter, that can turn a semiauto- matic handgun into one that functions as a machine gun able to fire multiple bullets with one pull of the trigger. Because of their miniature size, the conversion de- vices don’t alter the appearance of the gun much, and they can take less than 90 sec- onds to install. “Switches transform regular pistols into weapons of war, only suitable for use by sol- diers on the battlefield,” said U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton in the release. “We cannot and will not allow switches to proliferate on the streets of north Texas.” Law enforcement was first alerted to Ashley via an Instagram ad for the switches. An undercover meeting was arranged for May 24 at a Garland gas station where Ash- ley allegedly showed the undercover officer how to install a switch on a pistol after the officer purchased three for $1,200. Following the initial meeting, under- cover officers continued to communicate with Ashley, purchasing and arranging the delivery of more Glock switches through UPS. Ashley allegedly provided package tracking information for three different shipments of switches from Taiwan to the officers via Instagram. The packages were seized upon arrival with the switches surrounded by metal screws, a move the statement says is designed to “obscure the packages’ contents.” The un- dercover officers delivered the packages to Ashley’s apartment on June 14, where a search warrant was executed after he acknowledged the shipments were intended for him. This comes after a Fort Worth man, Xavier Desean Watson, was charged in No- vember 2022 for allegedly manufacturing and selling thousands of Glock switches with the use of a 3D printer, along with his alleged co-conspirators, brothers José Ber- mudez and Victor Bermudez. Watson was the fourth seller of conversion devices in- dicted in Fort Worth last year. In March 2022 another Dallas man, Mar- tin Avina, was sentenced to four years in fed- eral prison after he sold four Glock switches to undercover agents in 2021 through Snap- chat. In September 2021, Houston police of- ficer William Jeffrey was killed by a man using a gun with an illegal switch during an attempted arrest. A 2022 Vice investigation reports that the sale and use of auto sears have risen dramat- ically, noting that more than 1,000 were re- covered by law enforcement between 2017 and 2022. “In recent years, these small metal or plastic devices have exploded in popular- ity on the black market and gained a particu- lar cachet among criminals and anti-government extremists,” the Vice re- port states. If convicted, Ashley faces up to 20 years in prison, 10 years for each count he faces. Unsplash A state rep from Frisco has filed a Texas version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Unfair Park from p7
