Please write the state Board of Education to suggest specific changes to these rules BEFORE the meeting on January 18th. The best way to write them is to use the comment link which you can find at the website at this LINK.
If you're able to attend the meeting, please also let Equality Florida know: https://www.mobilize.us/equalityflorida/event/546166/
This rule needs to be amended before the state Board of Education votes on it:
I’m reading the book The Oppermanns. It has me alert to fascism. I’m troubled by this proposed state BOE rule 6A-10.081. Will its vagueness be used to punish teachers? If the rule bothers you, please write the BOE before their meeting on the 18th. The best way to write them is to use the comment link for rule 6A-10.081 which you can find at the LINK.
This is what I wrote: Punishing teachers for such a vague rule may cause more teachers to exit the profession. Please delete this part of (2):
Violation of any of these principles shall subject the individual to revocation or suspension of the individual educator’s certificate, or the other penalties as provided by law.
Please also add this language:
This doesn't mean that every comment a child makes has to be documented and sent to the parent on a daily basis. This merely means that a teacher should never say the words or imply "do not tell your parent." This doesn't mean that a teacher must betray a child's confidence. The teacher should say to the child who is struggling with a decision, "I encourage you to talk to your parent or the school's mental health counselor about this. It isn't within my job description to help you with this decision." The state BOE will ask the legislators and Governor to adequately fund the district-run schools so that a mental health counselor is at every school. The funding needs to be adequate to allow for the mental health counselors to offer a class once a month to parents entitled "How to get your child to talk to you." This must be adequately funded.
That is in response to this part of the rule:
8. Shall not discourage or prohibit parental notification of and involvement in critical decisions affecting a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being unless the individual reasonably believes that disclosure would result in abuse, abandonment, or neglect as defined in section 39.01, Florida Statutes.
Two more rules that you might want to comment on BEFORE the state Board of Education votes on January 18th:
6A-7.0714 and 6A-7.0715
The best way to write them is to use the comment link which you can find at this LINK.
My take away continues to be that DeSantis and his enablers are trying to hurt our neighborhood schools with ridiculous bureaucracy rather than a genuine concern about pornography in the classroom. The state BOE is voting on a new rule on 1/18/23 that will limit books in our school libraries. We can hope they’ll amend the rule before the meeting if we offer suggestions for improvement.
Link to Florida Freedom to Read Twitter thread on this issue.
Maybe you'll consider taking some of the amendment suggestions from this that someone (who is knowledgeable about this) wrote about rule 6A-7.0715 The slides that are referenced can be found at this link: https://web02.fldoe.org/rules/doc/6A-7.0715_2918.pdf
