OPINION:
These past few weeks, as the world teetered on the precipice of unimaginable chaos, President Biden and his minions set forth to attack evil. And what, you ask, was the scourge that our dear leader felt deserved his immediate attention? What was his top priority?
Was it self-inflicted runaway inflation? Was it the suicidal dismantling of our country’s energy independence? Was it the utter confusion Mr. Biden has brought to our nation’s southern border? Was it the complete failure of his foreign affairs policies? Were any of these problems addressed with clarity? Did any of them rise to the level of his bitter condemnation or a call for correction? No. None of this appeared to be at the top of our president’s list. So, what was his greatest concern?
Consider the following.
On Feb 9, 2022, Mr. Biden tweeted that he considered Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Bill — a law codifying parental authority over how to educate our own children — to be “hateful.” And following on the heels of her boss’s prompting, White House press secretary Jen Psaki declared this week, with tearful indignation, that supporters of this bill are “bigots” intent on “doing harm.” The bill is “discriminatory,” she said. “It’s a form of bullying. It is horrific.”
There you have it. While the world (at least that of Ukraine) literally burns, and while millions of us are fearful of not being able to afford to drive our 10-year-old “gas-guzzling” Honda Civics, our president and his party consider proponents of parental rights to be the primary enemies of the state.
Now, you may rightfully ask, what in this “horrific” legislation has Mr. Biden and his progressive puppeteers so up in arms? Well, here is what the bill actually says:
“No school employees or third parties shall give classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.”
How terrible you say! Floridians want to protect little boys and little girls who are 5 to 8 years old from sexual politics and indoctrination.
Well, if that doesn’t cause your woke blood to boil, it gets worse. The authors of this legislation actually believe that parents should have the final say in how to raise their own kids.
All school districts, says the bill, “are required to adopt procedures that reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children in a specified manner.”
It goes further.
“School districts are required to notify a student’s parent if there is a change in the student’s services or monitoring related to the student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.”
Schools are prohibited from “encouraging a student to withhold information about their mental, emotional, or physical well-being from a parent.”
School districts are required to “notify parents of each health care service offered to their student and to offer the parents the option to withhold consent and/or decline any specific health care service.”
Teachers are required to “give parents access to their child’s educational or health records kept by the school.”
All schools must “get parental permission before administering a well-being questionnaire or any health screening to kindergarten through third-grade students.”
The bill also requires schools to “respond to a parent’s concerns” regarding any of the above “within seven days of being notified of those concerns.” In addition, the school must resolve the matter “within 30 days.” Finally, if the school refuses to comply, the “parents can then sue the school district or request a special magistrate to mediate a solution, for which the school district must pay.”
So, in summary, the Florida Parental Rights in Education Bill is about parental rights. It’s about assuring mothers and fathers that their 5-to-8-year-old children will be taught the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic and not be proselytized by propagandists hawking their sexual wares. It’s about guarding the innocence of children and honoring the right of parents to teach their kids the moral standards they deem best.
It’s all pretty clear and straightforward. This bill does not ban the word “gay” from the classroom. Instead, this legislation simply says what any decent parent understands: Leave our 8-year-olds alone and stop confusing them with concepts they, by definition, are too young to understand. Just teach them their ABCs and stop bringing sexual indoctrination into the classroom!
Any disagreement with this bill is utter madness! We are talking about 5-to-8-year-old kids! How can any thinking adult not see that aiding and abetting a child this young to deny her biological reality and consider surgically or chemically altering her body is nothing short of child abuse? Those objecting to this bill are insane!
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Daycare: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery) and, most recently, “Grow Up: Life Isn’t Safe, But It’s Good.”
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