Miami-Dade Public Schools is the largest school district in Florida and the fourth largest in the nation, responsible for educating over 334,000 students. The board did them a huge disservice this week after members rejected two proposed sex education textbooks, citing concerns they violate the state’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill, aka “Don’t Say Gay.”
The bill was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March. Since then, reports of teachers being told to remove signage indicating a classroom is a “safe space” for LGBTQ students and inform parents if a child’s peer is “open about their gender identity” in P.E. class have confirmed critics’ worst fears.
The 5-4 board decision to ban the books not only leaves the district without a sex ed curriculum for middle and high school students less than one month from the start of the fall semester, it ensures that whatever course they do wind up with will be insufficient.
Despite Florida law allowing parents to opt their children out of sex ed, 278 parents petitioned against the materials, which included lessons on gender identity and unplanned pregnancies.
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“Some of the chapters are extremely troublesome,” said board member Mari Tere Rojas. “I do not consider them to be age appropriate. In my opinion, they go beyond what the state standards are.”
“Our current … process defends parents and their children who do not want to be exposed to this,” said Steve Gallon III, the board’s vice chair who supported the books. “But we cannot deny parents who want to have access for their children to this critically important information.”
A speaker for the local chapter of conservative group County Citizens Defending Freedom issued this troubling statement to the board: “Teachers that will be providing this material to children, which is illegal in the state of Florida, and the board that votes to adopt this, in the end — the country, the state and your community, will consider all of you groomers.”
DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw helped popularize the bigoted “groomer” attack when she labeled the bill the “Anti-grooming bill” in March, drawing fierce criticism from LGBTQ activists.
School staffers estimate it could take between four and eight months for news books to be approved.
Here’s what some folks are saying about the decision:
This is such incredible horseshit!
Now, kids in Miami-Dade will have no sex-education where they are taught what consent looks like and how to protect oneself against disease transmission.
Apparently, Republicans are okay with teenage pregnancy and STIs.
— Tyger Songbird ♠️ (@TygerSongbird) July 22, 2022
“Don’t Say Gay” bill does what we feared
Miami pulls textbook with reference to sexual orientation
1. The objection was from a parent who’s kids go to private school
2. 38 out of 40 speaking wanted to keep the book
FL is a cesspool of fake moralists https://t.co/lvRifI2GtP
— Rhetoric came from Trapani (@tiredofinterne1) July 22, 2022
Miami-Dade students are without sex education books after the school-board rejected textbooks over concerns they violate DeSantis' Don’t Say Gay bill. Political cowardice from the school-board members who let themselves be bullied by far right extremists.https://t.co/0bwpy1maIs
— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) July 21, 2022
ONLY 4 WEEKS until school resumes in Miami-Dade, where 6-12 graders in the nation's fourth-largest district will not have access to sex ed bc our school board has bowed to a radical fringe of anti-education special interests.
— David Quiñones (@David_Quinones) July 22, 2022
The school districts know this. It's why the Miami-Dade School Board just pulled the text book it uses for sex ed in middle and high school. https://t.co/3UBnnr2SzF https://t.co/EJd7b4D9Ma
— Jacob Ogles (@jacobogles) July 22, 2022
Cam
Countdown to the troll account coming in here screaming about some made up issue with AOC, Hunter Biden or Hillary Clinton to deflect from the fact that Republicans are so anti-LGBTQ that they made it illegal for us to even be mentioned even in a sex education book.
Remember when they said that the Don’t Say Gay bill wouldn’t prevent things like that?
My2CentsWorth
…. and the best way to deal with them is to ignore what they write.
ZzBomb
And defenders of this law were saying that it was only for children in 3rd grad and below. Wonder what they say to this? Sex Ed is a necessary thing for pre-teens and teenagers to learn.
Mack
Welcome to Floridah-home of Bigots and Racists and an asshole for a Governor.
SFMike
And pathetically that bigoted racist governor knows that this kind of right-wing fascist pandering might just land him in the White House where he can work on making this the law of the land. That’s what happens when Democrats refuse to standup and fight.
Fname Optional Lname
It’s Britain’s Section 28 just American style. They don’t even want to hear the word gay because it makes them uncomfortable and for some I am positive it makes them question their own sexuality. It’s far time people let them know they are not the only citizens in this country and gay people will never go away. Also — who tf do they think they are>?
Brian
Florida’s law does allow for “age-appropriate” mentioning of sexual orientation. They didn’t bother to define that or provide any guidance. But it does seem like a high school health class could mention that gay people exist. The board is being overly cautious so that they won’t face threats or lawsuits (which cost money and time) but their cautiousness is exactly what the bill’s authors and sponsors had hoped for. Fear is going to be the main way that this law gets implemented.
Kangol2
I believe this law’s language states that if a student from a homophobic or transphobic family unit–and there are many of these, in Florida or elsewhere–speaks about this with a school nurse, psychologist or counselor, or any sympathetic and empathetic teacher or aide or school official, the school is bound by this law to report the discussion to the parents, potentially re-traumatizing and endangering the student. For some reason this aspect of the law has been downplayed, but it horrible and should be discussed a lot more.
Kangol2
Speaking of the GQP, the Freedom Caucus in Congress is now officially on the record with a desire to repeal Obergefell and strike down same-sex marriage. Anyone who didn’t think this was part of their plan is fooling themselves, and there are diehard GQP supporters on here. That party has been consistently against LGBTQ people and same sex marriage for decades, tried to enshrine it into state law in 2004 (to also help George W. Bush get elected), and they are once again showing their true colors.
My2CentsWorth
The Freedom Caucus in Congress is mis-named. It, and similar groups, are about denying freedom to others. The extremists tend to only see the terms freedom, fairness and truth applying to what they advocate.
gaym50ish
It should not come as any surprise. The GOP platform for the 2016 general election called for a ban on same-sex marriage, and they voted to retain the same platform for the 2020 election. The fact that they lost the presidency should not give us any comfort, because we know Republicans are just waiting for the Supreme Court to reverse Obergefell.
fredk3
looks like this little sexless windbag is aiming for the white house.
Iona Lexiss
The only “grooming” going on is by the fake Christians who practice child abuse through indoctrination of systemic theology and make-believe. You have to teach kids to hate and once that’s done you can keep the hate thriving forever. THAT’S GROOMING.
Velvetalex
80% of pedophiles are heterosexual. So. There goes that LGBTQ+ people are groomers theory.
Den
The right neither understands nor cares about the difference between facts and fantasy. Fear driven fantasy and hate driven fantasy are their bread an butter.
CityguyUSA
We’re (almost every country on the planet) is facing the same problem China did in the 70s where there weren’t enough workers to pay for the retirees. That’s what “Don’t say gay” and anti-abortion are all bout. They want people to procreate and dig them out of the morass they built by spending, spending, spending. They could care less about grooming that’s just the fear factor for the people that aren’t smart enough to see through their cloud of smog. This is just brown icing being spread over everything. Distract, propagandize, distract, propagandize ad nauseum. The resolution is to CUT the military budget, now approaching $1,000,000,000,000 ($1 Trillion) per year and that’s not including the special payouts to Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries willing to follow the neo-liberal policy of austerity for everyone but the rich.
RoyM
So, the Miami-Dade school board is full of hate driven bigots. Is that surprising? Florida is an extreme right wing crap hole full of rotten people. That’s not exactly new. That gay publications are still pushing Florida as a gay vacation spot is despicable but they are. If gay people chose to live there, I guess that’s on them but the rest of us should stay away and spend our beach vacation dollars elsewhere.