Florida Board of Education Seeks to Expand Rule Banning Classroom Talks on Sexual Orientation Through 12th Grade

Female Student Raising Hand To Ask Question In Classroom. (monkeybusinessimages/iStock/Get
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Hannah Knudsen

The Florida Board of Education is seeking to expand a portion of the Parental Rights in Education law — which in part prevents classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity for children in kindergarten through third grade — via a rule which would expand such through grade 12.

DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill, House Bill (HB) 1557, into law on March 28, 2022. The bill covers range of topics related to parental rights. For example, it ensures that parents will be notified by schools of any healthcare services offered at the school and ensures that questionnaires or health screenings given to children in K-3 are reviewed by parents first. Parental permission is required for the school to administer such questionnaires or screenings.  Further, the law, which has been falsely labeled “Don’t Say Gay” by critics despite the fact that it does not ban a word or phrase or even contain the word “gay,” prohibits classroom discussions on sexual orientation or gender identity for children in kindergarten through third grade.

While the Florida legislature is working to expand the law to apply to children through eighth grade — as well as address issues related to “preferred pronouns” — the Florida Board of Education is reportedly considering a rule which would prohibit classroom discussions on sexual orientation or gender identity to children in all grades.

The rule title, “Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession in Florida,” provides “ethical guidelines for Florida Educators to practice and be held accountable for, if there is a violation of the principles.”

“The Commissioner may pursue disciplinary action against the license of an educator who violates the principles,” the proposal reads. Under the rule, such classroom discussions would be banned unless it is “expressly required by state academic standards as adopted in Rule 6A-1.09401, F.A.C., or is part of a reproductive health course or health lesson for which a student’s parent has the option to have his or her student not attend.”

The rule’s summary is as follows:

The amendment prohibits classroom instruction to students in pre-kindergarten through grade 3 on sexual orientation or gender identity. For grades 4 through 12, instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited unless such instruction is either expressly required by state academic standards as adopted in Rule 6A-1.09401, F.A.C., or is part of a reproductive health course or health lesson for which a student’s parent has the option to have his or her student not attend.

The board is expected to vote on the rule in April.

Meanwhile, the Biden White House, which openly supports, embraces, and advocates gender confusion for children, believes the efforts to protect children from inappropriate classroom discussions is “completely, utterly wrong.”

“But make no mistake, this is a part of a disturbing and dangerous trend that we’re seeing across the country of legislations that are anti LGBTQI+, anti trans, anti the community in a way that we have not seen it in some time,” she said, using the fake news label “Don’t Say Gay.”

“Students should be spending their time in school learning core academic subjects, not being force-fed radical gender and sexual ideology,” Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. said in response:

Notably, DeSantis addressed the critics of the original bill last year.

“These leftist politicians, corporate media outlets, some of these activist groups, they actually have read the bill, and they’re sloganeering because they don’t want to admit that they support a lot of the things we’re providing protections against,” he explained.

“For example, they support sexualizing kids in kindergarten,” the governor stated, reminding Floridians that far-leftists support “injecting woke gender ideology into second grade classrooms.”

“They support enabling schools to ‘transition students’ to a ‘different gender’ without the knowledge of the parent, much less with the parent’s consent,” he added.

A Rasmussen Reports survey released last year found that most voters supported the Parental Rights in Education bill, expressing that they would support a similar law in their own states.

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