Ryan Nicol
A bill to add human trafficking education to Florida’s public school curriculum is moving on to its final panel after it was approved Monday by the House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee.
The legislation (HB 259) had already been approved unanimously by the House PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee. It will now move on to the House Education Committee.
The bipartisan bill was filed by GOP Rep. Rene “Coach P” Plasencia, of Orlando, and Rep. Patricia Williams, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat.
Williams, who serves as the Ranking Democrat on the PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee, spoke in favor of the bill before the panel.
“This bill will actually shine spotlight on the darkness of human trafficking,” Williams said. “This bill will also be able to help children learn the signs of dangers that are in their neighborhoods and in their schools.”
A companion bill (SB 982) has been filed by Sen. Perry Thurston, Jr., a Fort Lauderdale Democrat. Students would be allowed to opt out of the program with parental permission.
The legislation also sets up a trafficking awareness campaign under the Department of Legal Affairs. The department would also set up a toll-free hotline to forward reports of human trafficking incidents to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
The measure is part of a group of bills aiming to address the human trafficking problem in the state of Florida.
Sen. Lauren Book and Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen have a pair of bills looking to increases awareness at hotels, where trafficking often takes place, as well as been up law enforcement training.
And legislation from Sen. Gayle Harrell and Rep. Toby Overdorf would increase mandatory minimums for those convicted of soliciting sex if the sex worker is a victim of trafficking.
One comment
Larry Gillis, Executive Committee, Libertarian Party of Florida
April 1, 2019 at 2:34 pm
This bill (HB 259, to add education on human trafficking issues to school curricula)– however noble and admirable its particular purposes — raises the much larger issue of WHO gets to decide what is in a “proper” curriculum at all.
Whether it is either right-wing flat-earth Christian loonies or left-wing space-shot secular whackos — either in the legislature or on some obscure school board somewhere — what they are doing is still concerning, because they are molding the young minds of our children.
FYI, the platform of my party (the Libertarian Party of Florida) says in part as follows on the subject of educating children (Part IX, Section 1, et seq):
“Education is a parental responsibility … Because parents/guardians are best situated to decide what it is their own children’s best interests, we support all measures that enhance the educational choices available, such as charter schools, vouchers or tax credits for private school tuition, and home schooling. We support individual and community based decision-making where people and entities freely decide what is best for their students or children …”
(FYI, I’d prefer the right-wing Christian loonies, but that’s still beside the point).
Your article docilely accepts the premise that the Legislature should be dictating curricula. Maybe you should rethink that proposition.
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