BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — The Florida legislature is looking to expand the Parental Rights in Education Bill, which was approved last year, to include 4th through 8th grades.

As it is set to be discussed this legislative session, the Watchdog team is investigating the impact of the law in its current form, which goes beyond K-3 grades.

The team spent considerable time in Brevard County looking into the issue, hearing concerns from students, teachers, and members of the community. The affected parties want clarification on how the Brevard County school district is implementing the law and its impact on the health of students.

Spectrum News 13 spoke to eight LGBTQ students in Brevard County Public Schools who were too scared to speak publicly. To better understand their concerns, it is necessary to understand how the Parental Rights in Education law impacts the district and its students.

The Watchdog team has spent months sifting through emails sent between Brevard County schools’ legal team, administrators, and teachers, with many of those emails revealing confusion on how to interpret the law.

Once the law became effective on July 1st, 2022, school administrators in Brevard County pulled the LGBTQ+ guidelines from the school system’s website, guidelines intended for all students K-12.

In documents obtained by Spectrum News 13, an email explains, “We have three separate actions that need to be addressed- updating current guidelines, revising several policies, and adding procedures.”

When Brevard County School administrators were reached for comment, they revealed concerns with at least two sections of the old LGTBQ guidelines, one being confidentiality and identity, and the other being restroom-locker room guidance for LGBTQ students.

Following an Orlando state school board meeting last October, Brevard County board members voted to change prior restroom-locker room guidance for LGBTQ students, no longer allowing them to use facilities consistent with their gender identity.

Now, students must use restrooms and locker rooms based on their biological sex.

Sebastian Cook, a transgender man, who graduated from Melbourne High last year, says this new guidance is weighing heavily on Brevard transgender students. “I know a lot of these students have said, like, I just don't use the bathroom at school anymore, and that's like you're telling me you have to sit through 8 hours a day and not go to the bathroom," Sebastian said.

Brevard County school board chair Matt Susin said, “You can always as a student go to the principals and say hey is there a way I can use a singular bathroom and the principals will work that out somehow.” Per state and Brevard County public school laws, that’s the only way the situation can be worked out to provide those students with an alternative singular-use bathroom.

In our conversations with LGBTQ students, most say they don’t feel comfortable talking to teachers for fear of either getting the teacher in trouble or the conversations they share might get back to their parents.

That’s the other part of the update to the school system’s LGTBQ guidelines we're talking about, section 7 Confidentiality-Identity. Before parental rights, this section said “All LGBTQ+ students have the right to decide when and whom their gender identity and sexual orientation is shared”. It now says that, in some cases, their conversations with a teacher, guidance counselor, or school-related mental health professional may be shared with parents.

Sebastian believes that teachers and students still need guidance on what they can and can’t share with teachers and specifically what teachers and counselors will share with parents.

An email chain between Brevard County school leaders and the Florida counselor’s association shows they spent months looking for guidance or what is known as a technical assistance paper or TAP form.

The state released a document outlining the new law, but nowhere in it does it provide specific details on how to talk to students, meaning a year later, a tap form does not exist. 

“I mean, there’s no doubt anything that a student has that they feel they want to bring to their teacher, the teacher should have absolutely 100 percent should be able to listen to that individual," said Susin.

"And if the teacher feels like there are things they’re not sure if they should listen to, if they can do or if they can’t do, then that’s the fault of the district for not setting the training for them to know that.”

Sebastian says he welcomes the idea of more training for faculty, students and teachers but adds this is only a start on the road to understanding for everyone. 

Brevard County School leaders tell us that training on all new legislation affecting schools was given at the start of the school year to administrators, then passed along to teachers. News 13 found similiar training was done in Lake, Osceola, Orange, and Seminole County School districts.