4 August 24-30, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ FLORIDA RULE BOOK GET TO KNOW THE DESANTIS-BACKED SCHOOL RULES TAKING EFFECT THIS YEAR. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN W ith the school year un- derway in nearly all Flor- ida counties, students and parents are getting acquainted with Flori- da’s revamped public school system under the purview of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Re- publican-controlled legislature, who have carried out a historic overhaul of Sunshine State education law with an eye toward eradi- cating what the governor deems to be class- room indoctrination. It’s been a tumultuous two years as DeSan- tis exacted the wide-sweeping changes. Parents have seen school board meetings erupt into frontline battlegrounds in the evolv- ing culture war. LGBTQ Floridians watched as discussion of their existence was restricted in classrooms. And DeSantis’ popularity swelled while he relentlessly warned children were in danger of being brainwashed by woke activ- ists. The new education regime opened the door to more local challenges to school library content, leading to a surge of book removals by school districts across the state. The 2022 legislative session was marked by the passage of the Parental Rights in Edu- cation law, AKA the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which banned discussion of sexual orienta- tion and gender identity through third grade. The statehouse also enacted the Individual Freedom Act, commonly known as the Stop Woke Act, which sought to restrict the teach- ing of systemic racism in the classroom. During the 2023 session, the legislature picked up where it had left off. From the ex- pansion of “Don’t Say Gay” restrictions to regulation of transgender students’ restroom use in schools, an elaborate array of school regulations have gone into effect this year, in large part targeting the LGBTQ community. The maze of regulations has been dizzying, and keeping track is a challenge even for those closely dialed in. As students file back into their classrooms and teachers brace them- selves for another semester, here’s a rundown of what new restrictions are in place. House Bill 1069: Pronouns and Gender Identity Ban HB 1069 bars school employees from asking kindergarten through 12th-grade students their preferred personal pronouns (“he,” “she,” or “they”). It prohibits teachers from referring to a student by pronouns that do not corre- spond to the person’s sex assigned by birth. Expanding on the 2022 Parental Rights in Education law, HB 1069 bans instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity through eighth grade. It also widens parents’ ability to object to books and instructional material. Any book that is challenged on the grounds that it is sexually obscene must be removed within five days of receipt of the objection and remain un- available to students until the issue is resolved. House Bill 1: School Vouchers for All HB 1 expands taxpayer-funded vouchers available to parents of K-12 students by re- moving income-eligibility requirements. The money can be used for tuition at private schools, including unaccredited institutions and religious schools. While DeSantis celebrated the bill’s passage as a victory for school choice, detractors say it diverts critically needed state funding away from the public school system. Senate Bill 266: Stop Woke 2.0 The DeSantis-backed measure prohibits pub- lic colleges and universities from spending federal or state dollars on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. It expands the powers of university presidents and govern- ing boards while further restricting the teaching of critical race theory. The law bars general education courses from including lessons that teach “identity politics” or are “based on theories that sys- temic racism, sexism, oppression, and privi- lege are inherent U.S. institutions and were created to maintain social, political, and eco- nomic inequities.” House Bill 1521: Transgender Bathroom Use The law prohibits students from using a bathroom that does not correspond to their sex assigned at birth. It directs schools to establish disciplinary procedures in their codes of conduct for students who enter the wrong bathroom and refuse to leave when asked. Under HB 1521, it is a misdemeanor tres- passing charge to use a public building rest- room that does not match one’s sex assigned at birth and refuse to leave when asked by an authorized government employee. House Bill 551: African American History HB 551 requires schools to certify that Afri- can American history is being taught “in a manner prescribed by” the Florida Depart- ment of Education. The law mandates that all school districts submit plans to the Depart- ment of Education each year regarding what is being taught about Black history and how it is being taught. School districts must post their plans on their website. The bill went into effect at the same time Florida was developing controversial new standards for Black history courses under the 2022 Stop Woke Act. | RIPTIDE | GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS Former education commissioner Richard Corcoran Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images ▼ MIAMI-DADE SAY “CHEESE”! MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT WANTS TO SCAN YOUR FACE. BY ALEX DELUCA N ext time you fly out of Miami Interna- tional Airport (MIA), you might be asked to present your face as your ID. After experiencing its busiest year on record, the bustling airport — which serves tens of mil- lions of passengers annually — plans to expand the use of controversial facial recognition tech- nology to check travelers’ identification. The face-scanning software, already in place at some international gates at the airport, is slated to be installed at roughly 20 more departure gates by the end of September and a large majority of the airport’s more than 120 gates by next summer. “The use of this technology allows [U.S. Cus- toms and Border Protection] to make existing travel requirements more efficient, which creates a more seamless, secure, and safer experience for travelers,” Greg Chin, Miami-Dade Aviation Department spokesperson, wrote in an email to New Times. Amid pressure from lawmakers to ramp up airport security post-9/11, facial recognition technology has made its way into dozens of air- ports across the United States and Puerto Rico in recent years. The Transportation Security Ad- ministration (TSA) plans to use it in more than 400 airports over the next few years. In 2018, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) introduced the technology at MIA to screen pas- sengers arriving from international destinations. In May 2022, the Miami- Dade County Board of County Commis- sioners approved a $9.1 million contract for the county avia- tion department’s project to install facial screen- ing technology at MIA’s gates to scan departing international travelers. The airport started to de- ploy the equipment around October 2022. It works like this: Travelers present themselves in front of a kiosk with a camera that automatically matches their live image with passports on file in CBP data systems. The encrypted process is supposed to take seconds, eliminating the need for passengers to take out their boarding pass or passport, and is separate from TSA security screening. The contract calls for Swiss IT company SITA to supply and maintain more than 240 biometric cameras to the airport. The deal involves $4.5 million in payments to SITA for equipment, soft- ware licensing, installation, training, and related fees. The company is set to earn $600,000 in yearly payments from the county for mainte- nance services, totaling more than $3.6 million over a six-year period. U.S. citizens have the ability to opt out of the face-scanning process and instead submit to a manual review of their travel documents. However, according to CBP, all non-U.S. citizens are required to go through the biometric identification process. “CBP will ensure that all legal and privacy re- quirements are met,” the agency says. While touted as a way to hasten the air travel experience, facial recognition software is highly controversial, with some cities like San Francisco banning the use of the technology by police and other government agencies. As with other new technologies, it faces skepticism for potential misuse, data storage implications, and prospec- tive bias in the screening process. In February, following TSA’s expansion of the technology into some of the nation’s largest air- ports, U.S. senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Ed Markey, and Jeffrey Merkley sent a letter to the agency demanding that it halt the program. The senators outline several concerns in the letter, writing that not only could the data gleaned wind up in the hands of private corpora- tions or bad actors, but the technology could also exacerbate racial discrimination during screening. They note a 2019 study from the Na- tional Institute of Standards and Technology, which found that Asian and African-American people were far more likely to be misidentified by facial recognition technology than white men. They also warned that TSA’s data has the po- tential to be hacked, which already happened once before in 2019. “Increasing biometric surveillance of Ameri- cans by the government represents a risk to civil liberties and privacy rights,” the letter reads. [email protected] “CBP WILL ENSURE THAT ALL LEGAL AND PRIVACY REQUIREMENTS ARE MET.”
