What Florida's Parental Rights in Education Law Means for Teachers
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2022
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
Critics have dubbed this it the 'Don't Say Gay' law.
A lawsuit has been filed against Gov. DeSantis by several LGBTQ rights advocates in an effort to block the law.
NPR's Melissa Block spoke with a number of teachers across the state of Florida who are worried about the chilling effect this law may have on not just what they teach and speak about in the classroom, but how it affects their students' well-being.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There was applause when Florida Republican Governor Rondi Santos signed what is officially known as the |
| 0:06.5 | Pro Rental Rites in Education Bill into law last week. We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school |
| 0:14.3 | to get an education |
| 0:16.6 | not an indoctrination |
| 0:21.0 | Opponents of the law have a different name for it. They call it the don't say gay law |
| 0:26.1 | Clinton McCracken is one of those critics. He's a middle school art teacher in Orlando who believes this law works to silence and |
| 0:34.1 | stigmatize students still discovering their identity |
| 0:37.1 | personally for me and |
| 0:39.6 | not just for me but for the many students that I know who are LGBTQ or who don't really know what's going on with themselves |
| 0:48.5 | It tells them that there's something inappropriate about them the most controversial part of the new law |
| 0:54.1 | prevents classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade |
| 1:00.9 | It also says such instruction has to be quote age appropriate or developmentally appropriate and quote for any school age |
| 1:09.3 | McCracken took that part personally. I'm gay. There's nothing inappropriate |
| 1:14.7 | about me being gay in front of a K through third grader and there's nothing inappropriate about me being myself in front of |
| 1:21.9 | middle schoolers or high schoolers either under this law any parent can bring a complaint to the school district and if |
| 1:28.6 | they're not satisfied with the resolution they can |
| 1:31.2 | escalate that complaint to the state board of education or sue the school district this has teachers scared that any |
| 1:38.2 | mention of LGBTQ people at any school age could be shut down |
| 1:43.0 | McCracken says that would impact to students creativity. I really |
| 1:46.6 | want my students to start putting their voice into their artwork their art is |
| 1:54.3 | a way for them to explore the world explore who they are in the world to understand their perceptions |
| 2:02.2 | to figure out what they think about things and part of that is to figure out what they think about what's going on in society |
... |
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