Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, a Republican, indicated that proposals of expanding the state’s Parental Rights in Education law to include middle schools would be taken into consideration.
The bill, which was signed back in March by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, forbids schools from teaching gender-related topics to children from kindergarten until only third grade.
Flanked by small schoolchildren, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signs the Parental Rights in Education (or "Don’t Say Gay") bill into law. pic.twitter.com/uLdGsYplGV
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It also says that schools may not restrict a parent’s access to information pertaining to their children’s health or learning.
Other parts of the legislation include a provision allowing parents to “object to materials they do not believe their children should utilize,” and an order for “curriculum and teacher professional development [to] align with required instruction and state standards, including no CRT or Common Core.”
Another bill signed around the same time, HB 1467, mandated that school districts make their selected instruction and reading materials publicly available.
“I am a parent. Of course, my kids are older, but I want to know what is going on in schools, and I want to be able to be consulted. The schools are not supposed to be raising our kids. It should be the parents, and that is really what the intent of the bill was. They should be able to object to things that they object to,” Passidomo reportedly said to local news outlet WKMG.
Although the Florida Senate president expressed support to outlaw the practice for middle schoolers as well, she does not think discussions pertaining to sexual orientation or so-called ‘gender identity’ should be banned from the high school classroom.
“The one thing that I think could be looked at is (that) we ended it at grades 1 through 3. I don’t think I’d be supportive of high school because kids in high school are hopefully a little bit more mature, at least, they should be.”
“But, you know, the middle school, maybe going to 6th grade or something like that,” she added.
The Florida bill’s current language allows for the curriculum to be reworked based on what the legislature considers to be age-appropriate, according to Newsmax.
