This school year, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and other Florida school districts issued an extension to the Florida Parental Rights in Education Law, known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This extension, dubbed as the 2424, addresses a permission slip seeking parental consent for activities such as club meetings, guest speakers and enrichment sessions. 

However, as tension began to rise, enraged parents and administrators caused the 2424 form to be postponed as of February.

Throughout the year, these forms were issued by many administrators, club sponsors and teachers working with students outside of class time. The student had to get a parent or guardian signature to participate in these activities. Not having the form signed once this occupation starts will expel you from attending.

“The form created a new way to organize our after-school programs,” Assistant Principal Monica Alba-Nunez said. “It helped climb through a barrier that was questioning the safety of our students.”

The 2424 form’s distribution has been delayed since it was established, indicating that the state law is not likely to remain in effect. When the form was in use, parents, instructors, and club sponsors experienced a great deal of hardship. 

One incident that started the outrage of the 2424 form was when a parent of a student was infuriated when her daughter asked her to sign a form issued by her teacher to participate in a Black History Month event in class. 

The incident gained national attention, alerting school principals to postpone the use of the Form 2424 later being added that it has gone under revision. 

This bill also affected clubs at Krop, such as Krop Spectrum and First Priority. Krop Spectrum sponsor Lisa La Monica said she made it her obligation to learn everything about this new requirements after the extension was passed.

“The [Gay Straight Alliances] are protected by schools, so they wouldn’t be able to be shut down,” La Monica said. “What the department of education wanted to do was to control whether or not students went to these GSA meetings. They weren’t able to single out only the LGBTQ+ population at these Florida schools, causing the 2424 form to be distributed for everybody.”

Darwinsky Charles, the president of the First Priority Club, also had disputes during the time the 2424 form was issued. 

“Form 2424 affected our club because not everyone of our club members were able to turn in the form on time, and as new members came rolling through, it became a problem,” Charles said. “It’s been months since our last meeting, and we are finally scheduled to have one this week.”