The guides are meant to serve as a resource for schools and families to help support LGTBQ students and offer guidance to teachers for how to handle issues on campus. The Littlejohn lawsuit, for one, takes aim at a guide used by school officials in Leon County. The push for the bill began with behind-the-scenes discussions among Florida House Republicans as they learned last year about a series of LGBTQ student “support guides” used in some school districts, according to interviews with five lawmakers. The legislation additionally requires schools to notify parents if there is a change in services for a student or any additional monitoring for their “mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.” It builds on the state’s “ Parents’ Bill of Rights,” which is meant to spur parental involvement in education and has been used by DeSantis as a means to thwart local mask mandates for students. It also bans such lessons for older students unless they are “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate.” The most contentious element of the “Parental Rights in Education” bill prohibits teachers from leading classroom lessons on gender identity or sexual orientation for students in kindergarten through third grade. “I can tell you I don’t think that’s OK.” Origins of the bill “When you listen to January tell her story about what they did with her child, without her knowledge or consent, I don’t think there’s very many parents in the state of Florida that think that’s OK,” DeSantis said before signing the measure into law. But not in Ron DeSantis’ Florida.”ĭeSantis held a bill signing ceremony at a Pasco County charter school on Monday where he lauded Littlejohn for “standing up” to the school district. “Classrooms should be places of inclusion, where every Florida child can learn safely and ask questions. Shev Jones, a Democrat from the Miami area who is the state’s first openly gay senator. “This is another stain on Florida’s history,” said Sen. Ron DeSantis came to be a loud and vocal defender of the measure, which was routinely mocked by late night comedians and was even highlighted during this year’s Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday. Opponents, including President Joe Biden, maintain it could further marginalize some students and lead to bullying and even suicide. Titled “Parental Rights in Education,” the legislation sparked uproar among supporters of the LGBTQ community, officials from both parties and some of the largest corporations in America, including Walt Disney Co. The teen could not be reached for comment. POLITICO is using “they/them” pronouns to refer to the teen so as to not reveal identifying information about them. “I didn’t see it coming, which is why I try to warn parents,” January Littlejohn said in an interview. Lawyers with the Child & Parental Rights Campaign say they helped Florida Republicans shape the legislation, a connection that has received little attention. The lawsuit and the issues it touched on galvanized Republican lawmakers to introduce and eventually pass one of the most contentious pieces of legislation to come from Florida, according to interviews with a dozen state lawmakers, advocates, parents, school officials and others involved in crafting the measure. The lawsuit was filed by the Child & Parental Rights Campaign, a public interest law firm that was founded in 2019, in its words, “to respond to a radical new ideology overtaking families.” This conversation proved to be a tipping point for the Littlejohns, who sued Leon County Schools in 2021 claiming that school officials helped their child transition to a different gender without informing them. But on that September day in 2020, after Littlejohn picked her teen up from school, she was struck by an offhand comment the 13-year-old made: The teen said “it was funny” when school staffers asked what gender restroom they preferred to use in response to their new name.
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