We Don't Need No Education, Con't

Miami-Dade County Schools will no longer teach sex education after right-wing idiots using GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis's "Don't Say Gay" law bullied the school board into reversing a decision to approve health textbooks for middle and high school students.

In a narrowly divided vote, the Miami-Dade School Board Wednesday reversed its decision to adopt a new sex education textbook for the 2022-23 school year — a move that leaves the district with no sexual education curriculum for at least four to eight months. 

The 5-4 vote followed an emotionally charged public comment period that included community members being escorted out of the building and a multi-hour board discussion that strongly paralleled the discussion it previously had in April, when members initially adopted the material in a 5-3 vote. 

At the time, Chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman, Marta Perez and Mari Tere Rojas voted against the curriculum. Board member Lubby Navarro was absent from the initial vote.

On Wednesday, Tabares Hantman, Perez and Rojas were joined by Navarro and Christi Fraga in voting against the measure. Vice Chair Steve Gallon, along with Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, Lucia Baez-Geller and Luisa Santos voted to adopt the book.

The book, “Comprehensive Health Skills,” which comes with a version for middle school and one for high school classes and offers research-based health education with topics such as nutrition, physical activity and sexually transmitted diseases, would have addressed the district’s units of study for Human Reproduction and Disease Education for grades six through 12. 

But the materials soon came under fire from some parents and community members who argued the lessons were not age appropriate and violated the state’s parental rights law, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law in March and which critics have dubbed the ‘Don’t say gay’ bill. They also argued the district’s process lacked transparency.

The pushback included the filing of 278 petitions objecting to the materials and resulted in Miami-Dade Superintendent José Dotres selecting a hearing officer to conduct a public hearing to review the concerns and the materials in question.

That hearing, which was conducted on June 8, resulted in the hearing officer recommending the board “deny the petitions and proceed with the adoption process,” according to the district.

This is not the first time school textbooks have been questioned. Earlier this year, the Florida Department of Education announced it was rejecting 54 math textbooks in the state’s public schools, claiming the books contained “prohibited topics,’’ including critical race theory. 

“I’m deeply disappointed by today’s decision. I hoped that Miami’s School Board would step up to protect youth in times of crisis,” said Kat Duesterhaus, a board member of Florida NOW and Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity. 

Not only does providing comprehensive sexual education help prevent sexually transmitted diseases, sexually transmitted infections and unwanted teen pregnancy, it’s also important to “building bodily autonomy,” which is important for teens to prevent and identify instances of sexual assault, Duesterhaus said.

DeSantis's horrible law is working as intended, allowing a tiny minority of parents to bully school boards into canceling textbook after textbook, activity after activity, and educational experience after educational experience.

Republicans don't want kids to question, to learn, and to think. They want stupid kids to grow up ignorant in order to exploit them as stupid voters and stupid workers.

Most of all, they want scared, pliable fools who don't challenge the status quo of permanent Republican rule, and the outliers kept in line by fear and threats.

It starts with math textbooks having "critical race theory" and sex ed textbooks being removed. 

It ends in fascism.