I am forwarding this Alert from NCC. Janine Hansen

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AB 202 is a rerun of the bills introduced in the past two sessions by Assemblyman David Parks, mandating that the State Board of Education adopt a policy and model program which all school districts must use to provide tolerance training to teachers and administrators in order to change the childrens' beliefs. The language of this bill has been toned down so the implications are more subtle, but the intent is absolutely the same as the bills in the two previous sessions: In the words of AB 513 from last session, to require teachers to "accept differing beliefs" and pass that on to the children. AB 459, the first in this series, went so far as to require students to "accept" and teachers to "promote acceptance" of beliefs contrary to their own, and contained required punishments for failure to comply.

Similar programs have been used in other states to coerce the acceptance of inappropriate sexual behavior and to denigrate religious opinions as "discriminatory" or "intolerant." This bill contains no protection for the right to maintain one's own beliefs and to disagree without violence. An amendment to provide this protection was offered last session, but was rejected by the bill's sponsors.

We prefer to leave the teaching of beliefs to parents, and expect our local school boards to adopt appropriate disciplinary policies for behavioral problems with the input of local parents and citizens.

Please note: An alternative is on the table in AB 132, which requires schools to ensure a safe and respectful environment free from harassment and intimidation, and to ensure that a person may respectfully disagree without resorting to violence, harassment or intimidation. You may want to express support for AB 132.

WHAT TO DO:

* E-mail the members of the Assembly Education Committee. Tell them briefly in your own words why you are opposed to AB 202 and/or support AB 132. You don't need to cover everything; one simply stated reason will do. Important: Be courteous, never chastise or threaten. (See below for hearing date & time.)

Assembly Education Committee

Chair: Assemblywoman Bonnie Parnell bparnell@asm.state.nv.us

Vice Chair: Assemblywoman Debbie Smith dsmith@asm.state.nv.us

Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson katkinson@asm.state.nv.us

Assemblyman William Horne whorne@asm.state.nv.us

Assemblyman Bob McCleary bmccleary@asm.state.nv.us

Assemblyman Mark Manendo mmanendo@asm.state.nv.us

Assemblyman Harvey Munford hmunford@asm.state.nv.us

Assemblywoman Sharron Angle sangle@asm.state.nv.us

Assemblyman Joe Hardy jhardy@asm.state.nv.us

Assemblyman Brooks Holcomb bholcomb@asm.state.nv.us

Assemblyman Garn Mabey gmabey@asm.state.nv.us

Hearing on AB 202 and AB 132

Assembly Education Committee

Monday, April 11

3:45 p.m.

Carson City Room 3142

Videoconferenced to Las Vegas, Grant Sawyer Building 555 W Washington (Corner of LV Blvd & Washington), Room 4401

Attend the hearing if you can. Sign in and mark that you are against AB 202 and for AB 132. You don't need to speak unless you want to; just being there and signing in will be noticed by the legislators! If you do want to speak, be sure to check the box for speaking, and be prepared to make a very brief, courteous statement expressing your position and asking the committee to oppose AB 202 and support AB 132.

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Please carefully consider this information and DO SOMETHING! At the very least, register your opinion on the legislative website, or leave a message for your own legislators and/or the appropriate committees at the Telephone Message Center. Better yet, take the individual actions listed with the bill.

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Legislative website - www.leg.state.nv.us

Register your opinion on a bill: Click on "What's Your Opinion?" (Include brief comments if you wish.)

Find out who your representatives are: Click on "Who's my Legislator?"

Read the text of a bill: Click on Session Info, 2005 Session, Bill Information, History of Specific Legislation