B.President Joe Biden’s Department of Education bureaucrats are the new schoolyard bullies.

In July, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights proposed a rule that would give federal bureaucrats broad powers to bully and exclude students and teachers who do not share the government’s beliefs. , unelected bureaucrats are rewriting laws to allow them to engage in behaviors used by bullies.

First, bullies like to call other children derogatory names. Similarly, education ministry bureaucrats want to view as bigots anyone who respectfully opposes gender ideology. Instead of defending the civil rights of all people, they target people who have sincere beliefs about men and women, what marriage means, and the role of parents in teaching their children about their faith.

Bullies also steal other children’s money. Meanwhile, Biden bureaucrats are taking every penny taxpayer-funded to impose their beliefs on others and threaten to punish those who respectfully disagree. , applies to 17,600 public school districts and more than 5,000 colleges, charter schools, for-profit schools, libraries, and museums that receive federal funding.

Third, bullies pressure their victims until they give in. Bureaucrats are forcing children to say things that go against their beliefs, using new rules that regulate speech by forcing students and teachers to use certain pronouns that bureaucrats endorse. Even when I offered to use the student’s surname to try and resolve a disagreement over the use of pronouns, Department of Justice officials refused to respond and filed a letter in support of the coerced speech.

Finally, the bully teams up with the gang’s other bullies. Through an executive order, the president directed all federal agencies, not just the Department of Education, to implement similar rules. USDA officials have already incorporated gender ideology into national school feeding programs. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have proposed rules for Title IX similar to those at the Department of Education.

The mission of the Ministry of Education should be excellence in education in literacy. Instead, they bully schools, teachers, and students to face serious consequences if they don’t follow their agenda. These bullies should learn how to read the laws in the book and how to write the rules that apply them.

The First Amendment protects freedom of religion and freedom of speech. The Supreme Court also ruled that students and teachers cannot “waive their constitutional right to freedom of speech or expression at school gates.” In fact, several recent decisions, including the victory of high school football coach Joe Kennedy, make it clear that the government cannot treat religious teachers and students like second-class citizens.

Moreover, before writing a regulation, bureaucrats must read the actual law to which it is supposed to apply. The ninth part of the Education Amendment refers to sex in his binomial way: male and female, bisexual, one sex and the other, female and male, father and mother. It explicitly exempted “Christian” women’s and men’s associations with gender-segregated membership. Title IX has religious exemption because Congress recognized the

Federal bureaucrats in the Department of Education have much to learn. Their job is to defend, not trample, the civil rights of students and teachers.

Maya Noronha is the First Liberty Institute’s Special Advisor for External Affairs. A non-profit law firm dedicated to protecting the religious liberty of all Americans. Learn more at FirstLiberty.org.