Why is Oklahoma so rabidly anti-child?
Sure, they’re an easy group to go after since none of them can legally vote, but Sooner State legislators are really hammering them.
First lawmakers fail, yet again, to properly fund the Oklahoma State Department of Education, meaning a bunch of schools across the state are laying off teachers and switching to four-day school weeks.
Then lawmakers twiddle their thumbs on bills giving teachers much-needed and deserved pay raises and effectively shut down that conversation for this legislative session.
That means the teachers who aren’t laid off will be even more tempted to leave for surrounding states where they might be paid a living wage.
And now the cruelest cut of all.
Senate Bill 765 by Sen. Ervin Yen, R-Oklahoma City, passed both the House and Senate and is heading toward Gov. Mary Fallin’s desk.
SB 765 would ban minors from using commercial tanning facilities.
If signed by the governor, the new law would ban “any person under 18 years of age to use any tanning device of any tanning facility in this state.”
Uneducated is bad enough, but now we want our children to be ghostly pale, too?
Yeah, yeah, we at Chicken-Fried News did our homework, and we know scientists say tanning can lead to premature aging and skin cancer.
We also know that, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation, people who use tanning beds before age 35 up their risk of developing melanoma by 75 percent.
But just hear us out!
Because this is Oklahoma!
Since when have lawmakers listened to science?
