On Tuesday, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation prohibiting transgender people at public schools from using the restroom that uses their gender identity.
The legislation, which goes into effect on April 7th, applies to locker rooms and multi-person restrooms for students in kindergarten through 12th grade in public and charter schools in the state.
Governor Huckabee’s spokesperson Alexa Henning told The Associated Press, “The Governor has said she will sign laws that focus on protecting and educating our kids, not indoctrinating them and believes our schools are no place for the radical left’s woke agenda. Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.”
The new law also requires schools to provide reasonable accommodations for transgender students, such as single-person restrooms, though opponents have claimed the measure doesn’t provide schools with funding to do so.
Superintendents, school administrators and teachers who violate the prohibition could be fined at least $1,000 from a state panel. Parents will also be able to file private lawsuits if the new law isn’t enforced.
“Each child in our schools has a right to privacy and to feel safe and to feel comfortable in the bathroom they need to go to,” Republican Rep. Mary Bentley, who sponsored the bill, told lawmakers earlier this year.
Sanders has made much needed education reform a priority for the state.