Bill protecting cultural expression at graduation ceremonies passes first committee
A dance group with Elvia Sanchez perform the Hopi Butterfly Dance, at the Santa Fe Indian School Feast Day on Oct. 9, 2023. (Photo by Diana Cervantes for Source NM)
Native students would be free to wear culturally significant items during school ceremonies under two proposed bills making their way through the Legislature.
Co-sponsors Reps. D. Wonda Johnson (D-Rehoboth) and Janelle Anyanonu (D-Albuquerque) presented House Bill 194 to the House Government, Elections & Indian Affairs Committee Monday morning, which unanimously passed the bill. It now heads to the House Education Committee. It is one of the two bills introduced this session to prohibit schools from banning Native American cultural expression at ceremonies.
Specifically, HB 194 makes changes to the Public School Code to restrain public, private and charter schools in New Mexico from restricting Native students from wearing culturally significant items during graduation or promotion ceremonies. The bill is a response to incidents in recent years when tribal regalia was banned or removed during graduation ceremonies. A Farmington High School tribal member had her graduation cap confiscated during a ceremony last year.
'It is very important to the people of New Mexico that we be allowed to express ourselves and our heritage and our culture without any resistance and certainly without any punishment,' Anyanonu said during the meeting.
Representatives from NM Native Vote, ACLU of New Mexico, the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, the Bureau of Indian Education at the Public Education Department and the National Organization for Women all spoke in support of the bill.
'New Mexico thrives off the tourist dollars of our native tribes and pueblos yet steal in educational spaces,' Bernadette Hardy (Jemez Pueblo/Diné), a representative from NM Native Vote, said to committee members. 'Our indigenous youth are denied representation and one of those most important times in their young life.'
A similar proposal, Senate Bill 163, will be presented to the Senate Indian, Rural and Cultural Affairs Committee Tuesday morning.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
37 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
New York lawmakers approve bill that would allow medically assisted suicide for the terminally ill
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Terminally ill New Yorkers would have the legal ability to end their own lives with pharmaceutical drugs under a bill passed Monday in the state Legislature. The proposal, which now moves to the governor's office, would allow a person with an incurable illness to be prescribed life-ending drugs if he or she requests the medication and gets approval from two physicians. A spokesperson for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would review the legislation. The New York Senate gave final approval to the bill Monday night after hours of debate during which supporters said it would let terminally ill people die on their own terms. 'It's not about hastening death, but ending suffering,' said state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who sponsored the proposal. Opponents have argued the state should instead improve end-of-life medical care or have objected on religious grounds. 'We should not be in the business of state-authorized suicide,' said state Sen. George Borrello, a Republican. The state Assembly passed the measure in late April. The proposal requires that a terminally ill person who is expected to die within six month make a written request for the drugs. Two witnesses would have sign the request to ensure that the patient is not being coerced. The request would then have to be approved by the person's attending physician as well as a consulting physician. The legislation was first introduced in 2016, Hoylman-Sigal said, though it has stalled year after year in the New York statehouse. Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, which has opposed the measure, said 'This is a dark day for New York State." Eleven other states and Washington, D.C., have laws allowing medically assisted suicide, according to Compassion & Choices, an advocacy organization that backs the policy. Corinne Carey, the group's local campaign director, said lawmakers had 'recognized how important it is to give terminally ill New Yorkers the autonomy they deserve over their own end-of-life experiences.'
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
New York lawmakers approve bill that would allow medically assisted suicide for the terminally ill
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Terminally ill New Yorkers would have the legal ability to end their own lives with pharmaceutical drugs under a bill passed Monday in the state Legislature. The proposal, which now moves to the governor's office, would allow a person with an incurable illness to be prescribed life-ending drugs if he or she requests the medication and gets approval from two physicians. A spokesperson for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would review the legislation. The New York Senate gave final approval to the bill Monday night after hours of debate during which supporters said it would let terminally ill people die on their own terms. 'It's not about hastening death, but ending suffering,' said state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who sponsored the proposal. Opponents have argued the state should instead improve end-of-life medical care or have objected on religious grounds. 'We should not be in the business of state-authorized suicide,' said state Sen. George Borrello, a Republican. The state Assembly passed the measure in late April. The proposal requires that a terminally ill person who is expected to die within six month make a written request for the drugs. Two witnesses would have sign the request to ensure that the patient is not being coerced. The request would then have to be approved by the person's attending physician as well as a consulting physician. The legislation was first introduced in 2016, Hoylman-Sigal said, though it has stalled year after year in the New York statehouse. Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, which has opposed the measure, said 'This is a dark day for New York State." Eleven other states and Washington, D.C., have laws allowing medically assisted suicide, according to Compassion & Choices, an advocacy organization that backs the policy. Corinne Carey, the group's local campaign director, said lawmakers had 'recognized how important it is to give terminally ill New Yorkers the autonomy they deserve over their own end-of-life experiences.' 'The option of medical aid in dying provides comfort, allowing those who are dying to live their time more fully and peacefully until the end,' said Carey.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Texas' GOP congressional delegation meets to discuss redrawing districts ahead of midterms
Republicans from Texas' congressional delegation met at the U.S. Capitol Monday night to discuss a proposal to redraw the lines of their House districts, GOP Rep. Pete Sessions said. Emerging from a meeting attended by most of the 25-member GOP delegation, Sessions said there was 'a lot we don't know,' including whether Gov. Greg Abbott would be in favor of the idea. Abbott has the lone authority to call members of the Texas Legislature back to Austin for a special session, which would be required to carry out the rare and extraordinary move of reshaping the state's political boundaries in the middle of the decade, years before the next census in 2030. Sessions, a Waco Republican, told reporters the delegation has scheduled another meeting to discuss the issue further and 'share data,' but declined to give further details beyond confirming that President Donald Trump would not be attending. The meeting came shortly after The New York Times first reported that Trump's political team has been urging Texas political leaders to examine how they could redraw some of the state's 38 U.S. House districts to help preserve the GOP's narrow majority in the lower chamber in the 2026 midterms. Sessions emphasized that Republicans, in weighing whether to push for a mid-decade redistricting battle, should consider how it would impact 'the entire delegation.' 'We want to make sure all of our members, even those that are brand new, have an opportunity to see this for what it is,' Sessions said, declining to say whether he was concerned specifically about stretching Republican districts too thin by moving voters around to maximize the GOP's advantage. Other Republicans exiting the meeting — including Reps. Chip Roy, Michael McCaul, Beth Van Duyne and Dan Crenshaw — did not directly answer any questions about the meeting. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Disclosure: The New York Times has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O'Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer. Get tickets. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
