This post was originally published on Word In Black.
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Florida, it seems, is at it again.
Some parents in the Sunshine State are outraged that their children’s school is asking them to sign permission slips allowing a book by a Black author to be read to their kids.
“I had to give permission for this or else my child would not participate???” parent Charles Walter, wrote on Feb. 13 on X, formerly known as Twitter. Attached to the post: a Miami-Dade County Public Schools permission slip.
“I had to give permission for this or else my child would not participate???” he wrote.
The activity is described on the form as a “read aloud” from 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the library on Feb. 13. Next to “types of guest that may attend the activity or event,” it reads: “fireman/doctor/artist.”
As one commenter responded to Walter’s post, “By an African-American’ is the strangest choice of phrasing that could possibly be used here. Why not use the author’s/reader’s name or the book’s title or give context on the book’s subject matter? ANYTHING normal.”
The Fundamental Rights of Parents
The permission slip, sent home earlier this week by Coral Way K-8 Bilingual School in Miami, was designed to comply with the guidelines of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Law.
The law, which went into effect in July 2022, requires district school boards to notify a student’s parent of “specified information” that “reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding upbringing & control of their children.”
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And this isn’t the first time a school has put Blackness on a permission slip. The Coral Way controversy comes a week after iPrep Academy, also part of Miami-Dade schools, sent home a permission slip about students participating in “class and school wide presentations showcasing the achievements and recognizing the rich and diverse traditions, histories, and innumerable contributions of the Black communities.”
After news of Coral Way’s permission slip went viral on social media on Tuesday, Education officials backpedaled.
“This is a hoax,” Manny Diaz, the state’s education commissioner, wrote on X. “Florida does not require a permission slip to teach African American history or to celebrate Black History Month. Any school that does this is completely in the wrong.”