“Before I would have explained everything and said, ‘It’s OK, sweetheart. Starks fears getting into trouble under the new law, which prohibits teachers from saying anything about sex that is not “age-appropriate”. Starks said that ever since DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill 14 months ago, she’s been anxious and unsure about what to do when pre-teen girls tell her they are having their first menstrual period without fully understanding what was happening to them.
You feel like people are looking at you like you’re doing something not so nice to their kids.” All I know is that myself and my colleagues, we present the facts, present true and honest history, but many people are believing what they’re hearing from DeSantis and anyone in his wheelhouse. “There’s this supposed woke agenda, and we’re supposedly teaching students to hate themselves because they’re white. “We’ve seen this chipping away at how people view us as educators,” Starks said. Latonya Starks, a fourth-grade teacher in Fort Myers, said there was one big reason keeping her from taking a teaching job in another state: she is waiting for her 17-year-old son to finish high school. In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools.” When DeSantis signed the “don’t say gay” bill, he said parents “should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as five years old”.ĭeSantis’s office did not respond to questions from the Guardian about Florida teachers’ complaints about the new laws.
In signing the “stop woke” bill, DeSantis said: “No one should be instructed to feel … shamed because of their race. LaTonya Starks at Orange River elementary school in Fort Myers, Florida. It’s absurd for the governor and legislature to be worried about teachers indoctrinating students on things we don’t even discuss in class.” “We have a housing affordability crisis, a health insurance crisis, a housing insurance crisis. “There are many more important things for the governor to be worrying about,” Dineen added. “I have many friends and colleagues who are genuinely afraid.” Afraid, for instance, of being accused of teaching critical race theory, an esoteric theory about race, rarely taught outside universities, that a DeSantis-backed law bars schools from teaching. “All this is just one more rock on the scale toward leaving,” said Arian Dineen, a middle school teacher in Stuart, 100 miles north of Miami. Florida teachers complain that DeSantis – who is expected to announce plans to run for the Republican presidential nomination – has targeted them as part of a culture war aimed at winning over GOP voters. As a result of these laws and their emboldening parents to challenge and even castigate teachers, many Florida teachers say they’re considering either giving up teaching or finding a teaching job in another state – all when Florida, which ranks 48th among states in teacher pay according to a recent study, is already suffering from a shortage of 5,300 teachers. In interviews with the Guardian, Florida teachers said they’re feeling more disrespected, unappreciated and under attack than ever before, worried that they’ll be fired or otherwise punished if they run afoul of the controversial – and often vague – new laws. In promoting this legislation, DeSantis angered many teachers when he denounced “ indoctrination in our schools” and let his press secretary accuse teachers of “ grooming” students. She fears that if she mentions it, she will get in trouble under the Parental Rights in Education bill (known as the “ don’t say gay” law) backed by Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis.Īs the summer holidays approach, Florida teachers are feeling anxious, confused and beaten down by new laws, championed by DeSantis, that limit how issues of race can be taught, what teachers can say about sex, especially about homosexuality, and what books are permitted in schools. Carol Cleaver, a middle-school science teacher in Pensacola, says that when LGBTQ+ students who are feeling hopeless or depressed approach her to discuss their emotional troubles, she, different from before, often balks at telling them about a crisis support hotline for young LGBTQ+ people.
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