You’re Invited: Rally in Tallahassee March 26
The United States Council on Domestic Relations, Children’s Health Defense, and other organizations are hosting a legislative rally day at the Florida Capitol on Wednesday, March 26, and you are invited to join them!
(Note: If you are not able to attend the rally, you can still take action on an important parental rights related bill detailed below. Please keep reading from the next section.)
The event is scheduled from noon to 5:00 at the State Capitol, and there are even busses carrying people to Tallahassee from various parts of the state at a reasonable rate.
This is a terrific opportunity to rally together and visit your Florida lawmakers alongside a strong group of allies. You can find out more and register for the event by visiting USCDR’s site here.
It is also an opportunity to connect with our state coordinator, Patti Sullivan, who will be attending the event. So please look for her when you’re there!
Parental Rights Bills
While the rally highlights several bills centered around health freedom, two of the bills particularly touch on parental rights.
Senate Bill 1288 (SB 1288), sponsored by parental rights champion Senator Erin Grall, would amend Florida’s Parents’ Bill of Rights to provide that parents have a right to review surveys given to their children in public schools and a right to consent before any biofeedback device is used on their child. It puts parents in the driver’s seat to protect their children from data mining in the schools. The rally aims to support this bill that will strengthen parental rights.
Senate Bill 370 (SB 370), on the other hand, would harm your parental rights, so we and the hosts of the rally oppose it. SB 370 seeks to authorize health screenings and medical services for children in public schools after written parental notification. Significantly, this would replace the current requirement of “first obtaining written parental consent.”
Parental consent is a much stronger protection than parental notification because the parent must respond before any action can be taken with their child. Under SB 370, once a notice is sent home, the school or clinic may proceed unless they hear from the parent—even if the notification never actually reaches the parent!
Parents, not public school clinics, should be guiding their children through their needs for medical care.
If You Can’t Attend
Fortunately, we have reliable information that SB 340 will not be moving forward this session. But you can still weigh in on SB1288 with your Florida senators, even if you are unable to attend the rally.
In fact, SB 1288 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Pre-K – 12 Committee on Tuesday at 11 a.m. So please reach out to your Florida state senator before then and encourage them to support SB 1288 to protect parental rights and to protect children from government overreach into their health and personal data.
You can find your state senator here.
Simply call or email, identify yourself as a constituent, and ask them to protect your rights to protect your children by supporting SB 1288 with their vote.
Thank you for taking a moment today to voice your support for SB 1288. And if you are able, I hope you will join the rally in Tallahassee on Wednesday to support parental rights in Florida law and to meet our state coordinator, Patti Sullivan.