How do you take a good piece of legislation and turn it into an administrative nightmare? Well it is happening right now to SB0426 here in Tennessee. The bill originally allowed parents to opt their child out of participation in a school club or organization. Now Sen. Stacey Campfield has filed an amendment to this bill that would change the requirement. If the parents want their child to participate in a school club, they have to give written permission for them to participate.

While this sounds like another way of doing the same thing, it is not. Opting your child out of one club with a note is not the same thing as having to give written permission for every club your child may participate in. Asking our already overburdened school administrators to sort through hundreds of permission slips every year and police which clubs the students can attend will create unnecessary paperwork, consume too much time, and place yet another level of bureaucracy on schools activites.

Amendment 1 to SB0426 will not only create an undue burden on parents and schools. Such legislation has also been used in other states to eliminate Gay Straight Alliances from high school campuses. Students who attend schools with Gay Straight Alliances are less likely to experience anti-LGBT hostility and harassment on campus.

Tell the Tennessee State Senate’s Education Committee to vote “No” on Amendment 1 to SB0426.

Then recruit your friends to participate in this petition by email, Facebook and Twitter!