NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Senate on Monday delayed final action on a House-passed bill sponsored by Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, that allows students and staffers to sue public universities and colleges if they think they’re being punished for refusing to accept “divisive concepts” that “inflame divisions” over race, sex, ethnicity and religion.
Senate Judiciary Committee chair Mike Bell, R-Riceville, who announced the delay on Senate floor, later said the holdup was a provision in the House bill requiring the University of Tennessee and other institutions to investigate when a complaint is made.
It says institutions are to investigate any complaint or complaint of a violation within 10 days from the institution’s receipt of the complaint and take action.
“That’s the part,” Bell told the Times Free Press in an interview outside the Senate chamber. “We’ve not had that in any of our versions that we’ve looked at in the Senate. And I’m also somewhat concerned that it’s such a major change that we might have to send it back to committee if I take it.
“So I’m still wrestling with whether I’m going to take that amendment or not,” Bell added. “But we’re going to hear, we’re going to to get to [the bill]. We’re going to get to it.”