The South Dakota House of Representatives chamber at the Capitol in Pierre. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)
By: Meghan O’Brien
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) — A bill on parental rights failed in the House of Representatives Tuesday over concerns about health care and child abuse.
Lawmakers voted 35-30 Monday to defeat the bill, and a reconsideration attempt failed Tuesday. The state Senate passed the bill 19-15 last month.
The legislation, brought by Sen. Tamara Grove, R-Lower Brule, would have codified a parent’s right to “direct the upbringing” and “moral and religious training” of their child.
Rep. John Hughes, R-Sioux Falls, was among the bill’s supporters in the House of Representatives.
“The problem today is that we have medicine and education that is postured to divide the child from the parents,” said Hughes. “I think it’s time that we provide that the law requires otherwise.”
Opponents raised concerns about protecting abusive and neglectful parents and inadvertently criminalizing coaches and teachers.
Parents’ rights might override concerns voiced by a mandatory reporter, Sioux Falls Republican Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt said, in reference to people professions such as teaching who are required by law to report abuse. Families sometimes frequently move to conceal abuse, Rehfeldt said.
“If there’s any doubt in any of our minds that this bill passage would enable a parent to put that abuse on their child,” she said, “we can’t pass it.”
One provision would have required “consent before any state agency or political subdivision of this state makes a video or audio recording of the minor child,” with exceptions for legal processes and public spaces.
The section doesn’t account for teachers who lead remote learning sessions or assign video or audio projects, or for coaches who use video to track athletes’ progress, said Rep. John Shubeck, R-Beresford.
“It just concerns me that well-meaning teachers will get in trouble,” Shubeck said. “I like giving the parents the ability to monitor what their kids are being taught, I’m just concerned about myself and others getting inadvertently swept up into breaking the law.”
Representatives with the Department of Social Services, Attorney General’s Office and South Dakota State Medical Association were among the more than a dozen opponents to the bill in a House committee last week.
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