JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri (LifeSiteNews) — A Missouri state senator has introduced a bill that would ban teachers and other school officials from helping students “transition” to the opposite sex.
GOP Senator Joe Nicola recently filed SB 1085, which would enact sweeping restrictions on indoctrination efforts in Missouri schools.
Nicola’s bill would not only ban all public-school staff from encouraging students to embrace their gender dysphoria, but it would also prohibit them from assisting children if one of their parents is aware of their confusion and approves of it.
“This act prohibits public school staff members from encouraging minor students in their ‘social transition,’ defined as engaging in certain activities with the goal of helping a student become perceived as a member of the opposite biological sex,” the measure reads.
“A school staff member shall notify the principal or the principal’s designee within 24 hours of a minor student’s request that the staff member assist with the student’s social transition. The principal shall notify the parents of such student within 72 hours of the initial request for assistance.”
Nicola, a Navy veteran and pastor, won election as a state senator representing District 11 in 2024. On his website, he mentions that during COVID-19 he “kept our church open for our members and refused to close. Our rights to assemble and worship are God-given. They should never be infringed upon.”
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Nicola garnered headlines earlier this year when he took on proponents of gender ideology during a committee hearing in April. At the time, a medical student was testifying against a bill that would outlaw persons from using the bathroom of their choice. The student said the measure goes against science. Nicola rebuked the man by stating, “I’m not going to listen to doctors that say one thing that disagrees with [the] God of creation.”
Nicola’s bill would protect employees who blow the whistle on others caught grooming children as well. It says that if a “school district discovers that a licensed educator has knowingly violated any provision of this act, the school district shall initiate proceedings seeking to terminate the employment of such staff member and to suspend or revoke the individual’s teaching license, as provided in the act.”
Current state representative candidate Chris Barrett expressed his gratitude for Nicola’s bill. Barrett, a Republican, is seeking to represent District 21 in the state’s legislature.
“I just called @JoeNicola to to thank him for this legislation. Medical transition is obviously the worst, but even social transition interferes with a child’s normal development. We ban things like child abuse because a responsible society does that. And social transition is child abuse folks,” he said in an X post.
I just called @JoeNicola to thank him for this legislation. Medical transition is obviously the worst, but even social transition interferes with a child’s normal development. We ban things like child abuse because a responsible society does that. And social transition is child… pic.twitter.com/BRdq5kY903
— Chris Barrett (@BarrettForMO) December 3, 2025
In October Missouri GOP Congressman Bob Onder urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to eliminate tax subsidies for transgender medical procedures.
“The tacit tolerance of a radical movement that has subjected thousands of American children to baseless medical treatments with grave consequences should be of serious concern to all of us,” Onder wrote in a letter obtained by The Daily Wire. “We must ensure that this misguided acceptance does not result in Americans unknowingly and indirectly subsidizing the cost of these procedures.”
Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services issued released a major report warning about the dangers of so-called “gender-affirming care,” infuriating pro-LGBT groups. The newly released report found that there are “significant, long term, and too often ignored or inadequately tracked” harm that is done by “puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical operations.”
“These interventions carry risk of significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret,” the report also notes.
