Aaria Ahdi | Oppose HB1792

Good afternoon Chair and members of the committee. My name is Aaria Ahdi, and I am a high school student. I am here to respectfully oppose HB 1792-FN. As a student currently in the public school system, I can tell you that learning about history, identity, and different perspectives is not “indoctrination” , it's education. School is one of the only places where we are exposed to people who are different from us, and understanding those differences helps us become more informed, respectful, and prepared adults. This bill uses very broad and unclear language like “LGBTQ+ ideology,” “identity-based ideologies,” and “division,” which could make teachers afraid to discuss real history, civil rights, or even students’ lived experiences. When laws are this vague, the result isn’t neutrality, it's silence, confusion, and fear in classrooms. The bill also creates a system where schools and teachers could be sued, which shifts the focus away from learning and toward legal risk. Instead of helping students succeed in math, science, reading, and critical thinking, schools may feel pressured to avoid any topic that could possibly be controversial. That hurts students. We need classrooms where we can ask hard questions, think critically, and learn how our country has grown, including both its achievements and its mistakes. As a student, I don’t feel harmed by learning about racism, inequality, or LGBTQ+ people existing in society. Those are realities of the world we live in. What would harm students is pretending those topics don’t exist or making certain groups of students feel like their identities cannot even be mentioned in school. Education should prepare us for the real world, not a filtered version of it. I respectfully ask you to consider how this bill would actually affect students’ daily learning environments. Please vote against HB 1792-FN. Thank you for your time.