Florida officials approve new rules regarding gender identity, bathrooms in schools

On Wednesday, state officials approved new rules dealing with gender identity and internet use in schools.

The Florida Board of Education met at the Rosen Shingle Creek resort at 9 a.m. The members, who were all appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis or his predecessor, implemented several laws approved by state legislators this year.

One bans teachers from classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation until after eighth grade.

That brings the rules in line with an expansion of the Parental Rights in Education law approved by state lawmakers this year.

Also, teachers are not allowed to use a student’s preferred pronoun if that pronoun is different from their sex.

“A cultural narrative has taken place in our culture that is oversexualizing our kids that at the youngest of ages,” Matthew Woodside said.

Woodside is a physical education teacher in Brevard County. He supports the new rules.

“Some of these measures are just to keep gender identity, sexual orientation conversations out of school all the way down to pre-K and somehow that’s controversial,” Woodside said. “Those conversations are best reserved for parents to have with their kids at their home when they first see fit.”

But the other half of the room made their opposition known.

“The very students who you claim you are trying to protect are the students who bully us and call us slurs,” student Benjamin Graham said. “Please don’t fire our teachers for giving us an inclusive environment.”

Graham is going to be a high school senior this year.

“It’s really disheartening to see this rhetoric being continued to push in schools,” he said.

Another rule requires schools to have bathrooms and locker rooms that are exclusively male, female or unisex as long as it’s designed for just one person.

“I believe in parental rights and transparency,” Moms for Liberty spokesperson Jessica Graham said. “I think that if a school is going to allow for students of different sexes to be in different bathrooms, that parents should be notified of those.”

Student Lola Fontanez opposes the rule.

“I feel like we are just constantly under attack, whether it be by the State Board of Education, by our local school board, but just from all of these adults in our lives trying to control our education rather than uplift us and create these inclusive environments for us. And we’re all just scared,” Fontanez said.

Another new rule says schools will not be allowed to plan field trips or host activities involving “adult live performances,” which critics have claimed is targeting drag performances.

“If we allow adult performances in the public schools, you’re putting somebody else’s parental rights above another parent’s,” Graham said. “If I don’t want my child exposed to adult performances and the public schools allow them in there, my child can’t unsee those things.”

Belinda Flores opposes the new rules. She said she is the parent of a nonbinary student.

“I think that parents of LGBTQ+ people are second-class citizens. So just because we may not support the current Governor does not mean that we have less rights than anyone else,” Flores said. “Honestly, I want to protect the children, the children staying alive long enough to figure out who they are and what they’re about. To me is more important than a parent’s right. And I’m saying that as a parent.”

Board members approved new restrictions on internet use at schools as well. TikTok will be banned from any school-owned device, and the app cannot be used on any privately owned device if it’s connected to the school’s internet. Clubs and sports teams would not be allowed to use TikTok to promote their activities either.

The same rule will bar students from using any social media in school unless it’s for educational purposes.