Florida Students Need Parents' Permission to Change Name in Trans Crackdown
Ron DeSantis, who opinion polls show is trailing former president Donald Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, has focussed on transgender issues.Earlier this year, the Republican signed bills that ban gender-affirming care for minors, mandate people to use certain bathrooms and restrict discussions of personal pronouns in schools.The memo, written by the school district's deputy general counsel, John Palmerini, notes that the Florida Board of Education on July 19 adopted a change to the Florida Administrative Code that states each school board must adopt a policy for education records that includes "provisions for parents to specify the use of any deviation from their child's legal name in school.""As an example, if the student is named Robert, but likes to be called the nickname Rob, the form must be filled out authorizing teachers and other personnel to call Robert the nickname Rob," the memo said.According to the memo, parents may fill out a form "allowing the usage of a transgender name.""As an example, if the student's legal name is Robert, but the student identifies as a transgender girl and uses the name Roberta, the parent may authorize a teacher or other personnel to call the student Roberta," the memo said.But it also said that while teachers and other personnel would use the name requested by the parent, they "may elect not to utilize the pronoun 'she/her' when referring to Roberta" as a result of a recently enacted law.That law, House Bill 1069, prohibits school employees or students from being required to refer to people by pronouns that don't correspond to the person's sex.The memo sparked a backlash after it was posted on X, formerly Twitter, by Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical.
