I’m still waiting for any who support teaching all this sexual insanity to kids to explain why
‘Hurtful and insulting’: Florida teachers react to the ‘don’t say gay’ bill
Clinton McCracken, an art teacher in Orange county, Florida, grew up in a small midwest town where he didn’t experience a person out as LGBTQ until he went away to college. He’s concerned Florida’s recent controversial “don’t say gay” bill is dangerous, hateful legislation that poses many risks to LGBTQ youth in the state.
“I wasn’t able to walk to any classroom and see rainbow stickers on the door that says this is a safe place where you can be who you are,” said McCracken. “We have that now. That’s what we’re trying to create for our students. This law, I see as an effort to take away the years that we’ve put in trying to make this a better place for kids so they don’t have to grow up like I grew up, where I thought I was all alone and then I barely made it through high school.”
Why, exactly, is an art teacher getting involved in any of this? Isn’t the job to simply teach art? Why do we need any rainbow stickers? What aboyt for those kids who are straight? Why are they being left out? How about we just leave all that stuff outside of the government funded schools, and just do your job?
The bill, called the Parental Rights Education bill by its Republican authors, prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as well as any instruction characterized as inappropriate – vague language that has incited concerns the bill will be used to suppress and intimidate mere acknowledgment of the LGBTQ community in public schools.
“Don’t say gay” also grants parents the right to sue for damages and attorney fees if a school district doesn’t resolve their complaint about a child’s education, which essentially forbids discussion of LGBTQ issues or identities. A teacher in St Johns county was reprimanded by their school district after a parent complained about his T-shirt, which said “Protect Trans Kids.”
You know, realistically, it forbids teachers from really talking about anything sexual to kids up to grade 3. Even straight stuff. Because teachers really do not need to discuss anything with young kids. It’s not their job.
“The vagueness of the language in this bill opens an unfortunate door into allowing bigotry to continue,” said Caitlin Pearse, an elementary school music teacher in Hillsborough county, Florida. “What we’re talking about here is the right to be seen and represented in classrooms. We have lots of books in elementary school showing heterosexual couples, they have parent characters that are moms and dads, things like that. We want to be seen the same way that straight couples are seen in media.”
Exactly why does an elementary school music teacher need to be discussing anything sexual with kids of any age?
“This bill, for me, is a sign of pure hatred,” said Javier Gomez, a high school senior at iPrep Academy in Miami, Florida, and president of his school’s Gay-Straight Alliance club. “They’re targeting a demographic that can really benefit from all these teachings about gender identity and sexual orientation, about differences in cultures, and learning about accepting themselves for who they are, because a lot of kids at a very young age know who they are. I knew that I was gay at five years old.”
Bullshit. Kids have zero idea at that age. And, this is stuff for the parents, not unrelated teachers.
“I’m gay too so this hits me doubly hard,” said Jean Eckhoff, a history teacher of middle school and high school students in Live Oak, Florida, for 17 years. “I’m 52 years old, and I’ve never seen anything like this in my lifetime.”
Just teach history. Anything else and that’s outside your bailiwick. And sounds quite a bit look grooming
Read: Unhinged Groomer Florida Teachers React to The Parental Rights Bill »