Orange County teachers voice concern ahead of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law taking effect – WESH 2 Orlando

Local teachers are concerned over two laws set to take effect Friday they say will change the way they can teach and act in their own classrooms.A group of teachers are attending the Orange County school board meeting tonight to voice their concern over the new laws that regulate how teachers can discuss sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom and how they can teach subjects related to race.”I am not not going to be there for my students,” said Ladara Royal, a dean at Orange County Public Schools. RELATED: DeSantis signs controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ billSeveral Orange County Public Schools teachers are making their feelings known, expressing worry over two new laws that take effect Friday that many teachers believe could hurt their students and learning environments.”This puts a limitation to how we can keep our students safe and not just physically safe but mentally safe,” Royal said. The new laws regulate how teachers discuss sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade as well as how they teach about issues of race.RELATED: DeSantis signs Stop WOKE Act into lawThe Orange County teachers union says many teachers are worried the laws could stamp out all conversation related to race and the LGBTQ community.”Teachers were hearing that they won’t be allowed to wear clothing that was rainbow colored or rainbow lanyards or they won’t be able to wear Black Lives Matter shirts,” said Wendy Doromal with the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association. In a statement, OCPS officials say they will continue to support the LGBTQ community but did say that the district’s legal department has cautioned kindergarten through third grade teachers “not to wear clothing that may elicit discussions that could be deemed classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.”Teachers said the district is being too conservative in its interpretation of the new laws and many are vowing to fight the district to change their interpretation.”We are ruled by a moral compass and an ethical standard and a divine cause. So we are going to continue to do that,” Royal said. “Do we obey what we know is right as we did with humanity, as we did with our community, as we did with our students, or do we chose to comply with a wrongful law that disenfranchises our most vulnerable?”Teachers said they aren’t planning to blatantly break these new laws. They said they just want the school district to lay out reasonable guidelines.The school district said it is waiting to release more guidance until it gets more direction from the state.