Florida teachers race to remake lessons as DeSantis laws take effect – By Lori Rozsa (Washington Post) / July 30, 2022
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Miami-Dade County school board couldn’t make up its mind. It has voted three times in four months on whether students can use a particular textbook, “Comprehensive Health Skills,” for sex education classes. The board for the state’s largest district signed off in April, then banned it in July after some parents objected and told members that they’d be known as “groomers.” That meant the cancellation of sex ed classes for more than 100,000 students. Board members reversed themselves again a week later.
Florida is less than two weeks away, but officials are still plagued by confusion and uncertainty about what a raft of new laws championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) will mean. The measures — aimed at eliminating what DeSantis calls “woke ideology” in public schools — have parents, teachers, and students scrambling to figure out how to follow them and to also keep from being targeted by Floridians newly empowered to sue school boards.
Florida’s culture war is being waged primarily in schools. The DeSantis administration has decried teachings on race, suggested civics instruction that downplays the historical separation of church and state, told school districts to ignore advice from the federal government that guarantees civil rights protections for LGBTQ students and, on Wednesday, asserted that children in elementary schools are being told they are the wrong gender.
“That is happening in our country. Anyone that tells you it’s not happening is lying to you,” DeSantis said at a news conference.
