The OCPS workshops, held last month, aimed to update 600 principals and assistant principals about new laws affecting campuses. At these “camp legal” meetings there was a lot of interest in HB 1557 and a lot of questions posed to the district’s legal staff.
Teachers soon began hearing about the discussions from their principals and much that they heard worried them. They feared, for example, that they could no longer display photos of same-sex spouses in their classrooms, wear rainbow-colored pride lanyards to hold their school IDs and keep books in their classroom libraries that mentioned sexuality or gender identity, among other new prohibitions.
Some of their worries were unwarranted, district staff said this week, noting that family photos, for example, were fine in classrooms. The OCPS legal office posted a note of apology on its website.
“In hindsight, we caused more confusion than clarity and, for that, we apologize,” it read.
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