WKMG-TV reported that Kathleen Passidomo, Florida Senate President (R), stated last week that she was considering a proposal to extend the state’s Parental rights in Education law to include middle school schools.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), signed the Parental Rights in Education Bill into law in March. The bill prohibits schools from teaching children in kindergarten through third grade about sexually-charged topics. Schools are also prohibited from limiting parents’ access to information regarding their children’s education and health.
“I am a parent. Although my children are grown, I still want to know the status of schools and be able to consult them,” Passidomo explained to WKMG. “The schools are not supposed to be raising our children. The parents should have the responsibility of raising their children, which is what the bill intended. They should have the right to object to anything they object to.”
Passidomo indicated that she would support an expansion of the bill to prohibit the topics being taught to middle-school students. This was based on children’s maturity levels. Passidomo stated that she wouldn’t support banning educators from teaching high school students about sexual orientation and gender identity.
“The one thing that I think could be looked at is (that) we ended it at grades one through three. I don’t think I’d be supportive of high school because kids in high school are hopefully a little bit more mature, at least, they should be,” Passidomo continued. “But, you know, the middle school, maybe going to sixth grade or something like that.”
Former Florida state Senator Audrey Gibson (D) told WJXT that Passidomo’s support of the proposal would “ostracize” students based on their gender identification.
“It’s just wrong. And the bill continues to create division,” Gibson argued. “I just want to make sure that people understand the fallacy of grooming or impacting a young person to be a male or female or not. That is so far from the truth.”
