To Commissioner Henry Mack, the Florida State Board of Education, and the Brevard Public Schools Board:

We are parents and guardians of students in Brevard County public schools, and we are writing this open letter in response to the Department of Education's recent "Welcome Back to Florida's Schools" memo.

We do not want our children's education organized around pushing a single civilizational narrative. We want an education rooted in truth: science that reflects current scientific consensus, and history that is accurate and complete, including the parts that are uncomfortable. Our kids can handle facts. What they cannot do, is build a functioning future on a curated version of the past.

We also want our children to grow up with empathy. We want them to understand that every person has a place in this community: people with disabilities, people from different backgrounds, LGBT neighbors, and anyone who doesn't look or live like their own family. That understanding doesn't come from a textbook alone. It comes from a school culture that actively includes and represents everyone.

The memo raises "protecting innocence" and screening out inappropriate "agendas." We want to be direct: when that language is used to single out LGBT people, it reads as invasive and demeaning, not protective. Real protection of children means ensuring the adults around them are properly vetted, and that no one in a position of influence is indoctrinating kids into a particular religion or belief system. It does not mean casting an entire community as a threat to be screened out of the classroom.

Teaching children to recognize and respect the full range of people in their community isn't an agenda. It's basic citizenship, and it's what we expect from our public schools.

This is what we hope for, as parents raising kids in this county:

1. - Curricula grounded in scientific and historical accuracy, not a single ideological narrative.
2. - Honesty from the Department that "protecting innocence" means adult vetting and safeguarding against religious indoctrination, not the exclusion or stigmatization of LGBT students, families, and educators.
3. - Continued and strengthened support for inclusive education and disability representation in our classrooms.
4. - Appropriate and timely accommodations for all children who need them in order to thrive in their classroom setting.

We are parents raising kids who will inherit this state. We are asking for a public education system that tells them the truth and teaches them to treat every person with dignity.

Signed, 

The undersigned parents and families of Brevard County Schools