DeSantis Proposes Expanding Parental Rights in Education Act up to Grade Twelve

Governor Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) has proposed expanding the Parental Rights in Education Act to prohibit classroom teachings on gender identity and sexual orientation beyond the third grade.

While the current legislation bans the instruction of such topics for students grade three and under, the revised bill would add new requirements for students between grade four and grade twelve restricting discussions about such topics only when “expressly required by state academic standards,” the amendment notes.

“Parents have the right and God-given responsibility to guide their children’s upbringing,” Republican Clay Yarborough, the bill’s legislative sponsor in the senate, said during a committee hearing on Monday.

“They should not have to worry their students are receiving classroom instruction on topics and materials parents feel are not age-appropriate,” Yarborough added.

The update also reportedly bans public-school employees from using gender pronouns that do not correspond with the sex of the student, according to the Orlando Sentinel, which first broke the story.

The Parental Rights in Education Bill was originally passed in March 2022 through the Republican-dominated state legislature.

“Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” the original version of the bill read.

However, many critics have since dubbed the legislation the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, arguing that it fits a broader pattern of demonizing the LGBTQ community.

The latest legislative update appears to be part of a “larger, disturbing trend,” on the part of Republican leaders to use “every lever of government to censor conversations about LGBTQ people,” a spokesperson for Equality Florida told the Sentinel on Tuesday.

The ultimate goal, the spokesperson added, was to cast LGBTQ people as “wrong . . . or that we should be written out of society.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denounced the amendment during Wednesday’s briefing, calling it “completely, utterly wrong.”

The press secretary called it “part of a disturbing and dangerous trend that we’re seeing across the nation.”

Bryan Griffin, the press secretary of Governor DeSantis disagreed. “There is no reason for instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity to be part of K-12 public education. Full stop,” Governor DeSantis’s press secretary tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.

The sentiments were echoed by Manny Diaz, Florida’s education commissioner. “Students should be spending their time in school learning core academic subjects, not being force-fed radical gender and sexual ideology,” Diaz wrote on Twitter.

“In Florida, we’re preserving the right of kids to be kids.”

In recent months, the DeSantis administration has taken an increasingly active stance on cultural issues. In January, the government requested data from a dozen state universities about the number of students diagnosed with gender dysphoria or who received surgical treatments in campus clinics in the last five years.

“Our office has learned that several state universities provide services to persons suffering from gender dysphoria. On behalf of the Governor, I hereby request that you respond to the enclosed inquiries related to such services,” Chris Spencer, director of the Office of Policy and Budget for DeSantis, wrote in the memo released at the time.

The memo came on the heels of the state Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine’s vote to ban puberty blockers and sex-reassignment surgery for transgender youth in the state.

The latest proposal is scheduled to face a vote before the state’s Board of Education in April and does not require legislative approval in order to be enacted, the Associated Press reports.