The mother of a former Leon County Schools student was a featured speaker at a Monday bill signing event as Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a measure that restricts instruction about gender identity and sexuality in elementary school.
The woman, a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the district, said from behind the lectern at a Pasco County charter school Leon County Schools excluded her and her husband from a conversation about their child’s gender identity.
“It sent the message that she needed to be protected from us, not by us,” she said.
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The Tallahassee Democrat is not identifying the parents to protect the identity of the child. “What happened to our family is one of the many reasons why this bill is necessary,” the woman added.
DeSantis took the opportunity while signing the Parental Rights in Education bill (HB 1557), more commonly known by its critics as “Don’t Say Gay,” to target Leon County and other counties in the state for indoctrinating students with “transgender ideology” during the press conference. Coincidentally, the annual International Transgender Day of Visibility is on Thursday.
“The left, they want that to happen to all other families,” DeSantis said. “They don’t want any protections for parents. They think they should just be able to take your kid and do whatever the hell they want with them. That is wrong, and she was right to stand up against the school district, and now every parent is going to have the right to do that.”
The new law, which goes into effect July 1, also allows parents to sue for damages and attorney fees if a complaint about a child’s education is not resolved by a school district.
Other recent coverage:Critics of Rocky Hanna read aloud ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill in full at Leon school board meeting
The federal lawsuit against Leon County Schools asks for the district to change its LGBTQ guide to adhere to Florida’s Parents’ Bill of Rights. The parents are represented by the Child & Parental Rights Campaign.
The complaint alleges the district spoke to the couple’s child about gender identity without their consent. School officials counter that one of the parents gave the school permission to let the child take the lead in discussions.
Leon County Schools created new LGBTQ advisory panel
School officials also created a new LGBTQ advisory committee to go over the guide, which is currently being reviewed. That committee of 15 — made up of district administrators, teachers, students and parents — isn’t without controversy.
The back story:Parents’ rights, LGBTQ advocates at odds over district’s new advisory committee
Parents’ rights advocates have said the committee does not include enough “diversity of thought,” while LGBTQ advocates have been concerned that the chair of Leon County’s Moms for Liberty had a spot on the panel.
Parents and LGBTQ advocates have asked the school board to reconsider including Sharyn Kerwin, head of the Moms for Liberty-Leon County chapter, on the committee because of concerns that Moms for Liberty is anti-LGBTQ.
“As a parent, I would want to know when my child is going through anything that serious and heavy,” Kerwin previously told the Tallahassee Democrat. “I would expect if it’s a situation that’s serious – it could be an LGBTQ issue; it could be an unwanted pregnancy; an abortion, depression or suicide – as a parent I would want to be involved … I would want to guide them through the situation.”
Also Monday, the national Moms for Liberty Twitter account shared a blog post that warned parents about The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people and a source used for the district’s original LGBTQ guide.
“The Trevor Project is actively grooming children into a trans identity & then blocking any information or resources about de-transition or self-acceptance. Parents must organize and educate themselves,” the tweet said. All Moms for Liberty local chapters are autonomous, Kerwin said in a text message.
Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna said attacks on teachers have put public school administrators on the defensive: “Our teachers and our parents should be working to educate the whole child, and right now that’s not the case.”
DeSantis has denounced teaching about ‘transgenderism’ in schools
At Monday’s bill signing, DeSantis held up a poster with the title “Found in Florida,” depicting “The Genderbread Person,” a gender-neutral gingerbread man with explanations about gender identity, expression and anatomical sex.
“This is inappropriate for kindergartners and first graders and second graders. Parents do not want this going on in their schools,” the governor said.
Hanna countered that “teachers and administrators are not indoctrinating children into one line of thinking. They are teaching them to think for themselves.”
Contact Ana Goñi-Lessan at AGoniLessan@tallahassee.com and follow her on Twitter @goni_lessan.
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