Ashley Moody blasts ‘disinformation’ about Parental Rights in Education bill

Florida’s Attorney General defended the state’s “Parental Rights in Education” law Monday against an attack from a Democratic U.S. Senator from Connecticut, calling it more “disinformation” from the Left.

Republican Ashley Moody took to the Fox Business Network’s “Varney and Company” to rebut a condemnation of the legislation from Sen. Chris Murphy.

“This is disinformation that we routinely see among those on the radical Left,” Moody contended.

“It is no surprise that parents around this nation are waking up to what is being taught.” Moody added. “Let me rephrase: what is being pushed in our educational system “

Moody said the bill established “parameters to protect very young children” from information or material “that may be inappropriate or too complex for young minds.”

“This smear campaign against leaders in Florida that they are any way targeting or bullying or harming young children is directly opposite of the intention (of the bill),” Moody said, noting she herself is a mother.

Murphy blasted the bill on Fox News Sunday, as reported by POLITICO and other outlets.

“I am very concerned about the sort of very quick, hateful, divisive turn that the Republican Party has taken,” he said Sunday morning. “This effort in Florida to sort-of target gay kids in schools, I just think is mean-spirited and something that I had not seen from the Republican Party when I first started out in politics 20 years ago.”

“I just have seen this turn in the Republican Party where they are not willing to support protections for a democracy,” Murphy added. “They’re willing to install a President in the White House who didn’t actually win either the popular or the electoral vote. They seem to be targeting vulnerable kids in a way that they didn’t 10 or 20 years ago. I do think it’s important to sort of talk about this very different element of the Republican Party that exists today that I don’t think was the foundation of the party a couple decades ago.”

Murphy contended the bill targets LGBTQ+ children, saying it was “sending a message to these kids that they are not worthy, that they should be ashamed of their identification.”

The legislation was one of the flashpoints of a pyrotechnic 2022 Legislative Session, and continues to resonate as this year’s campaign season heats up in earnest.

HB 1557 limits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. “Instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity” is banned for students in kindergarten through third grade, as is instruction for all students “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

The legislation does not restrict the topics from being barred across all ages if the school district deems the instruction age-inappropriate.