Our state legislature seems to care more about pandering to the most radical part of their base than making life better for the average Floridian. We need less silly regulation and more focus on real issues.
Our property taxes are too high. Roads are getting too congested. We have too many polluted lakes and streams. Our students are below average in middle school and high school test scores. We rank near the bottom in health care. Wages are too low, and the cost of housing is too high. Enough is enough.
The latest in the Tallahassee Culture War is the concept of parental rights and schools. Very few of us would disagree that parents should be notified when their child has something important going on at school.
Unfortunately, our state legislature, in partnership with helicopter parents, has created a mess in our schools. Here are some examples of what excessive parent’s rights have done to Florida schools.
What if your child slips on the playground and skins their knee? Normally, they would go to a school nurse, who would clean the scrape, put some bacterial ointment on the scrape, put a band-aid on, and send the child back to class. Now, it appears that the school nurse cannot treat that child for something as simple as a scrape needing a band-aid unless they have a pre-approved form signed by the parents.
It may be that your child is struggling to read. The teacher thinks your child has a vision problem and suggests getting a vision test from the school nurse. Nope, can’t do that either.
In Orlando, 50,000 fewer school kids had their vision tested. Since about 10% of vision tests of children find issues, that means, just in Orlando, 5,000 kids with vision issues that impair their learning were not diagnosed because their child did not have a note from their parents approving a vision test.
Want your kid to use the school library? Need a permission slip for that. Otherwise, to prevent lawsuits, your child cannot access any book in the library that has not yet been formally challenged and found acceptable. Guess how few books in the library that is?
Your name is William Alexander Smith. Everybody calls you Billy. You are now in high school and want to go by the more ‘grown-up” name of Will. But the teacher can’t call you Will or Billy – unless they have a signed permission slip from the parents. William, all year long, you will be called by the teacher even if every classmate calls you Billy.
In Collier County alone, almost 14,000 nickname permission slips were returned, requiring those slips to go to the teachers and be filed away someplace at the school. Think of the wasted labor.
These Republican helicopter moms, in partnership with the Republican state legislature, are doing real damage to our schools. Because the law is so sweeping, so open to interpretation, and enables parents to sue school systems and personnel, schools are starting to require permission slips for almost everything under the sun.
Helicopter parents are likely to get permission slips taken care of. Single parents who work multiple jobs are the least likely to get all the multiple permissions signed off on.
The solution is simple. These kinds of issues should be school policy, not a state law that creates parents’ rights to sue school systems and school employees. If we are going to have permission slips, they should let helicopter parents opt out, not forcing every single parent to opt in on every single policy.
Seriously, is it ever possible to please a helicopter parent over every single school issue relating to their child? Why are we even trying to pass laws to satisfy every whim of helicopter parents?
Readers what do you think? Share your thoughts: david@d-r.media.
David Dunn-Rankin is CEO of D-R Media, which owns the Triangle News Leader and Clermont News Leader, as well as newspapers in Highlands, Polk and Sumter counties.
