Monday in the State House: Book Bans, Trans Athletes, Anti-Metro Movement

The gallery of the Tennessee House chamber Monday night was once again filled with protesters rallying for gun control. Many of the protestors were particularly interested in item No. 25 on the calendar. 

House Bill 1202 would allow teachers to carry guns in schools. While the legislation’s Senate version has already been deferred to next year, the House version has slowly and contentiously been making its way through the General Assembly. Advocates for gun control have been vocal in opposition to this bill, with studies showing that teachers having guns could actually increase gun violence rather than prevent school shootings. 

So naturally, when it came time to consider the bill that protesters in the gallery had waited through a three-hour floor session to hear, House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) moved for the remainder of the calendar to be heard during Wednesday's session and was immediately met with resounding boos from the gallery. This was followed by Democrats on the floor asking for the bill to be heard. Eventually, Lamberth agreed to withdraw his motion, and the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville), placed the bill on the desk. 

That could mean the bill is dead until next year. But Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis) was quick to point out that because of the flow motion that the House adopted later in the session, the bill could potentially be called back from the desk at any time without warning to the public. 

Here are a few of the bills the protestors sat through Monday night.

Book Bans

House Bill 843 requires that any book in a K-12 school library that a parent or teacher has requested to be banned must be reviewed within 60 days. After 60 days, if the book has not been reviewed, it will automatically be removed from the shelves and appealed to the Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission. Newly re-inaugurated Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) argued that the state shouldn’t even be banning books, and that this is just expediting that process. The bill passed 71-22, although it has not made any moves in the Senate since February, so it’s unclear if this one will actually make it through this year. 

Next up, Senate Bill 1059 also takes aim at books in K-12 schools, making it a felony for a publisher to knowingly distribute obscene material to a K-12 school. Rep. Susan Lynn (R-Mt. Juliet) sponsored both of these book-ban bills and said she had spoken to two librarians in her district who said this was an issue. But Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) argued otherwise, using her five minutes of debate time to say that she had called dozens of librarians all across the state, including multiple in Lynn’s district, who said this was not actually a problem. The bill passed 71-22, and already passed the Senate back in March. 

Anti-Trans Legislation

Senate Bill 1237, presented in the House by Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), would require athletes in private K-12 schools to participate in sports based on their biological sex. This comes at the end of a long legislative session full of anti-LGBTQ legislation and rhetoric. Rep. Bob Freeman (D-Nashville) pointed out that transgender children participating in school sports is a rare occurrence. He also argued that the idea that it is unfair is wrong, joking that if he and Bulso were to have a physical competition, that wouldn’t be very fair either due to Freeman being larger than Bulso. Of course, the logic fell on deaf ears, and the bill passed 72-19. The bill passed in the Senate last week. 

School-to-Prison Pipeline

Senate Bill 1069 was adopted in the House and would mandate the expulsion of any student in a K-12 school who committed an act of violence — but tacked on is the same mandate for any student who makes a threat of violence. These students would need to be sent to alternative schooling, and while bill sponsor Rep. John Gillespie (R-Memphis) argued that because of COVID-19, online school should be an alternative option, Johnson pointed out that many school districts do not actually have the resources to provide this offering. The bill passed 82-11; it passed unanimously in the Senate last week.

Later in the night, Senate Bill 611 hit the floor. The legislation aims to make any child who has been charged with robbery or tried to escape a juvenile detention center eligible for adult prison. That “or” was a big point of contention, leading Democratic representatives to point out that this means a child who is convicted of a minor crime but attempts to escape a juvenile detention center, with their infamously bad conditions, could end up in adult prison. The bill passed 72-24, and passed in the Senate last month. 

Attack on Nashville

We may be in round eight of the battle between Nashville and the state, but that’s not stopping the General Assembly’s Republican supermajority from getting in a couple more hits before the bell. House Bill 1197 reconstitutes the Metropolitan Sports Authority as a 13-member board, with six of those members chosen by the state: two by each chamber's speaker and two by the governor. The other seven will be chosen by Nashville’s mayor. The bill passed 74-23 and awaits scheduling in the Senate. 

Meanwhile in the Senate, House Bill 864 passed 25-6. The bill, which already passed in the House, would lower the threshold of votes required for the Metro Council to approve any demolition at the Fairgrounds Nashville, smoothing the path for a divisive overhaul of the racetrack facilities. Now, instead of a supermajority, the remodeling would only need 21 Metro councilmembers to vote for it.