“If the board does not approve the textbooks, they will be taking away the rights of everyone to public education that is based on facts and science.”
​- Miami-Dade Parent

Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis, has tried to market his “Don’t Say Gay” law as a way to protect the rights of parents. Instead, it has consistently deprived parents of the ability to have their children educated in a manner that they seem fit. The latest example took place in the Miami-Dade school district that used to be the home of current LAUSD Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho.

Under a law signed last year by DeSantis, parents in Florida already had the right to opt their children out of sex-ed, including lessons that provided “information about disease symptoms, development and treatment”.  This was not enough for “a vocal group of county residents [who] had objected to material on contraception methods, gender identity, and how to report child abuse, which was found in the ‘Comprehensive Health Skills’ textbooks.” Despite the fact that “38 out of the more than 40 people who spoke…had asked the board to keep the textbooks”, the Miami-Dade board voted to pull them from classrooms.

As a result of the board’s actions “the district will go without a sex-ed curriculum for four to eight months.” Parents who do not want their children to be ignorant about these important subjects will not have the opportunity to opt their children into sex-ed classes that have not been censored. This deprives them of the choices that DeSantis has said he is expanding.

In an effort to stop the “unprecedented wave of bigotry and discrimination in this country”, California added Florida to the list of states where “state-funded travel is banned because of laws that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community.” Instead of taking a similar stand against the “Don’t Say Gay” law, the LAUSD School Board signed a contract worth $6 million with the Florida Department of Education to provide a virtual program for students. The summary of this contract that was given to board members provided no guarantee that Florida’s anti-gay bias would not be reflected in the program.

Subsidizing the Florida Department of Education sends a terrifying message to LAUSD families who are also members of the LBGTQ+ community. The board needs to look deeper into this contract, which they approved without discussion, and obtain assurances that our students will not receive lessons that have been censored. If these assurances cannot be obtained, the contract must be canceled.

“They don’t gotta burn the books they just remove ‘em”
- Rage Against The Machine

Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He was elected to the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and is the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.