A measure building upon Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which would expand the rules and requirements to eighth graders and address issues with preferred pronouns, has passed through a state House committee.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the original House Bill (HB) 1557, the Parental Rights in Education bill, into law on March 28, 2022. The bill enshrines certain parental rights into law, such as requiring schools to notify parents of health care services offered at the school.
The bill also “ensures that whenever a questionnaire or health screening is given to K-3 students, parents receive it first and provide permission for the school to administer the questionnaire or health screening to their child,” per a summary from the governor’s office.
Perhaps most famously, the measure also prevents inappropriate classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity from occurring in classrooms of children in kindergarten through third grade. That fact generated significant misinformation during the debate over the bill, which became a nationwide topic, as far-left critics and activists falsely labeled the legislation “Don’t Say Gay.” Notably, the word “gay” does not even appear in the bill’s text.
The new measure, HB 1223: Public PreK-12 Educational Institution and Instruction Requirements, builds upon the original Parental Rights in Education law, expanding the ban on inappropriate classroom-led discussions on gender identity and sexual orientation from pre-K through eighth grade rather than ending at third grade. It also provides requirements “if such instruction is provided in grades 9 through 12.” It makes it clear that such discussions in higher grades must be “developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Florida House Bill 1223 expanding Parental Rights in Education Just made it out of committee.
Pronoun brigade is gonna love this one.. pic.twitter.com/JVtj7lAbfC— Frog Capital (@FrogNews) March 14, 2023
Further, the measure addresses the left-wing activists’ newfound obsession with “preferred pronouns.”
“It shall be the policy of every public K-12 educational institution that is provided or authorized by the Constitution and laws of Florida that a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex,” the legislation reads in part.
The legislation reads:
An employee, contractor, or student of a public K-12 educational institution may not be required, as a condition of employment or enrollment or participation in any program, to refer to another person using that person’s preferred personal title or pronouns if such personal title or pronouns do not correspond to that person’s sex.
An employee or contractor of a public K-12 educational institution may not provide to a student his or her preferred 60 personal title or pronouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to his or her sex.
A student may not be asked by an employee or contractor of a public K-12 educational institution to provide his or her preferred personal title or pronouns or be penalized or subjected to adverse or discriminatory treatment for not providing his or her preferred personal title or pronouns.
The bill passed the House Choice and Innovation Subcommittee 14-4. The text can be found here.
State Rep. Adam Anderson, the Republican who introduced the legislation, said it is about getting back to the basics in schools.
“It lets our teachers get back to the reason that they became teachers in the first place,” he said. “It gets the education system back to the reason that we send our children to school in the first place and that’s to learn about math, science, history, and reading.”
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