School teachers throughout Florida are being advised to remove things like rainbows and family photos from their classrooms as schools prepare for the enforcement of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, WFTV ABC-9 Orlando reports.
Called the Parental Rights in Education law by Republicans, the law prohibits educators from discussing virtual anything relating to sex, gender identity, relationships or anything else conservatives find oogie.
As word spread to teachers that Orange County administrators were preparing for a push to enforce the law when it goes into effect July 1st, teachers were warned to remove anything that could be remotely construed to be gay-ish.
Teachers were told to remove rainbows from their classrooms. They were warned to ditch the multicolored lanyards distributed by the school district a couple years ago. Particularly in elementary schools, teachers were told to remove photos of their spouses or partners out of concern that children may ask about relationships. Staff was told to remove “Safe Space” stickers from doors because that could be construed as being directed at LGBTQ students.
“It will be alarming if our district chooses to interpret this law in the most extreme way,” the teacher’s union President-Elect Clinton McCracken said. “We want them to protect student privacy. We want them to make sure that they’re creating and helping to create safe classrooms. We believe our school board supports that.”