By Jim O’Rear
After a Miami school drew attention for requiring parental approval before students could participate in a book-reading activity for Black History Month, Florida education officials went on the offensive, admonishing the principal and accusing her of engaging in “nothing more than a political ploy.”
The spat between the state and local school officials spiraled after a social media user on Monday shared a photo of a form requesting permission for students to “participate and listen to a book written by an African American.” The form described the guests that could attend as “fireman/doctor/artist,” but did not specify the book or author in question.
“I had to give permission for this or else my child would not participate???” the user who went by the name Chuck Walter, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. Local media organizations connected the slip to Coral Way K-8 Center in Miami. Walter told NBC News that he gave the Coral Way K-8 Center teacher “verbal consent” for the Black History Month activity but was told that the form must be signed or his child could not participate.
Coral Way staff sent those forms home because the school district’s attorney’s office determined that in order to comply with the Parental Rights in Education law, guest speakers require parental permission forms, said the district’s chief academic officer, Lourdes Diaz, at a Miami-Dade School Board meeting Wednesday.
But state officials criticized the move, saying the policy is an “absurd” interpretation of a state rule. Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr., responded on X calling news of the permission slip a “hoax” that students in Florida need permission to learn about Black history.
The incident appears to have arisen out of confusion over the Parental Rights in Education law, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 and expanded in 2023.
The legislation bans classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in all public schools through 12th grade. The law’s supporters say it gives greater parental control over children’s education; critics have dubbed it the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
At a press conference Thursday, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz and Gov. Ron DeSantis singled out the school as an example of how some local school officials have “politicized” state laws that they say are meant to empower parents to have more control over what their students learn in school.
But the laws have led many schools to scramble as they try to make sure they are in compliance with some of the state board’s regulations on classroom instruction. In Miami-Dade County, the district adopted a mass permission slip policy that has led to students needing parental approval before hearing guest speakers on subjects like African American history and the Holocaust. In Seminole County, parents have also been asked to sign permission slips for participation in Black History Month, according to a copy obtained and reviewed by the Miami Herald.
Florida education officials zeroed in on the issue of permission slips after Walter’s post on X garnered about 13 million views, 16,000 likes and nearly 4,000 reposts — and sparked ire among state officials.
DeSantis publicly commented on the matter for the first time at a press conference Thursday.
“You had this incident in Miami, where there was this permission slip thing. It was absurd,” he said. “The State Board immediately wrote a letter to the principal to say knock it off, stop with the nonsense.”
In the undated letter that DeSantis referenced. Ben Gibson, the chair of the State Board of Education, sent it to Coral Way’s principal, Barbara Martin.
Gibson wrote that at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, his board implemented a new “common-sense” rule “to further strengthen parental rights in education.” He said it requires school districts to “develop procedures” to communicate to parents the specific details on extracurricular activities, like the event’s nature, date and location, so they can decide whether to send their kids or not.
However, Gibson said that the book-reading activity at Coral Way fell under the “routine curricular activities” and didn’t require parental permission.
Gibson copied Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Jose Dotres on the letter and asked him to “immediately review this matter and take appropriate action.” He also asked the principal to update the procedure to avoid “unnecessarily asking parents to grant permission where the student is simply engaged in regular on-campus learning.”
Elmo Lugo, a Miami-Dade Public Schools spokesman, siad that the event description on the form likely caused the issue.
“We realize that the description of the event may have caused confusion, and we are working with our schools to reemphasize the importance of clarity for parents in describing activities/events that would require parental permission,” Lugo said. “However, in compliance with State Law, permission slips were sent home because guest speakers would participate during a school-authorized education-related activity.”