The Florida Department of Education placed the state’s teachers on notice: If teachers choose to violate the “Parental Rights in Education” law, they could lose their professional teaching license.
Local news outlet WPTV reported about the punishment for potentially-disobedient teachers, which spurred further criticism from the Left.
The law, called the ‘Don’t Say Gay” law by critics in the Democratic Party and LGBTQIA+ movement, was passed by the Republican-majority state legislature and signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But the nickname for the law was not based in fact because the law did not explicitly say that teachers cannot say the word “gay” to students.
Contrary to the media narrative, the law prohibits the teaching of gender identity or sexual orientation issues to children between kindergarten through third grade (which spans ages five to nine years).
It is another example of the media-fueled misinformation frenzy surrounding the law.
Instead, the law became a rallying cry for independent parents and Republicans alike, to the point that other states are following Florida’s lead to remove power from entrenched bureaucrats and activist teachers and hand power back to the parents.
A supporter of the law said that “there needs to be accountability” for teachers who cross the line in classroom instruction. Palm Beach County Moms for Liberty chapter leader Kristen Stevenson pointed out that the law will not affect the majority of teachers, “In all honesty, I don’t think this will apply to 99.9% of the teachers in Palm Beach County … the majority of teachers are not doing these things in K-3.”
One critic disagreed and called the state’s new rules a “deliberate scare tactic.”
Yet, despite the Left’s criticism and misinformation campaigns, parents continue to win out in the fight to restore parental rights in public education and root out left-wing activism.