If you walk into my classroom, you will see I strive to make an environment that allows students to feel comfortable and respected. As a teacher, I try my best to create a welcoming environment where students are free to express who they are. I love my job. I love teaching. I love my students. Right now, it’s not easy to be a teacher in Indiana. If you take a moment to see what’s happening currently in the Indiana House and Senate, you will notice there are a number of bills attacking our LGBTQ+ community.

Currently, Indiana has a number of problems facing our educational system. There is a teacher shortage, lack of resources for schools, a gap in learning among students and so many other issues that are making it harder for Indiana students to have the best public education they deserve. Our legislators continue to fail our educational system and instead of tackling the real issues they have decided to attack one of our most vulnerable populations. Our legislators should stand for the rights of all Hoosiers, but instead, they are working to create bills that will make Indiana an even more unsafe place to live. As educators, we need to protect our youth, every single one of them. The current bills aim to attack the LGBTQ+ community from “don’t say gay” to taking away vital medical care from our trans youth.

As teachers, it is our job to keep our students safe and as we face a time full of hateful legislation we need to stand up for the rights of our students, all of them. As educators and parents we need to speak up and fight back. We can not, we must not just stand idle to these bills that intend only to harm instead of embracing the incredible diversity and uniqueness of our youth. There are a number of ways we can support our youth. First and foremost, we can listen to them and be there for them. Secondly, we can write our Indiana representatives and legislators to let them know why they should not support these bills. We must educate ourselves on the language in the bills.  We can donate to organizations that not only provide lifesaving resources for the LGBTQ+ community but are also actively working to stop these bills. I am challenging our community to take a stand against this harmful legislation so we can come together to provide a safer community for all of our youth.