ORLANDO, Fla. — The Florida Department of Education is considering several new measures at a meeting in Orlando on Wednesday, July 19.
One measure would further restrict what after school activities can be held at schools and how students will be allowed to take part in those activities.
Scarlet Seyler and Jacob Washuta are both members of Boone High School’s Queer and Ally Alliance (QAA). They prepared their remarks in opposition to the proposed new rule.
“We also need to prepare for the worst, because we know that this legislation — regardless of what it says — will be used to target the queer community on campus – and we prepare for that because we know that it will happen,” said Seyler.
The proposed rule would not just notify parents, but require parent to sign off permission for their student to attend an after school event. Washuta says that would prevent students whose parents don’t approve of who they are, from taking part in activities where they could get acceptance.
Washuta plans to speak at the Florida Department of Education meeting on Wednesday. The meeting is set at 9 a.m. at Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando.
“When you say, 'Oh, if your parents don’t want you going to it you can’t go to it,' then you’re saying to the people who have abusive home lives that, 'No you’re not privy to have a safe space like other people are,'” said Washuta.
State Rep. Anna Eskamani says the new rule could hurt any student who is interested in a group their parent might not agree with.
“Of course a lot of our concern is how this could impact LGBTQ+ organizations and spaces, but let’s be clear — it could also impact, for example, a conservative kid wanting to join a young Republicans club if their parents are Democrat, or vice versa — so this type administrative burden, this over-excessive use of government can kind of go both ways,” said Eskamani.
Seyler led Boone Boone High School’s QAA through the canceling of an April after-school event called “Drag and Donuts, after state education leaders intervened and an Orange County school board member said a drag queen speaking to students was inappropriate.
The proposed measure also bans any after school event from containing a live adult performance, a measure Seyler says is targeting drag performances. Since that event at Boone High School was canceled, the state extended the so-called don’t say gay bill, or parental rights in education bill, to high school.
Seyler says increasing requirements even last year forced the group to often meet at a park near the school, but even there she says students don’t have the safety that after school events inside a school building would provide. At a gathering in May, the group was attacked.
“They were not supportive and they said homophobic things while they did that and they took food from students who needed it,” said Seyler. “And that was able to happen because we had moved off campus. Since then we’ve done everything we can to minimize that happening, but when we leave campus we are more vulnerable.”
Seyler and Washuta are skeptical they’ll change the minds of state education leaders, but they say it’s still important to speak up.
“It’s so important that even if this rule gets passed, that queer students see that they were supported and their community came out in opposition of their community trying to hurt them,” said Washuta.
The board also plans to update health education standards to align with state law, a discussion on African-American studies and an item on a new internet safety policy, which would ban TikTok from Florida schools.