Florida man sues Palm Beach County schools over LGBTQ pride flags in son's classroom
The father of a seventh-grade student in Florida has sued the Palm Beach County School Board, demanding two LGBTQ pride flags be removed from his son's classroom and claiming they amounted to "brainwashing."
Frank Deliu, a Wellington resident, said in the suit filed last week that he was forced to ask for his son to be removed from the class. His family is Orthodox Christian and they believe homosexuality is a sin, he said.
Deliu called the pride flags "offensive" and accused the middle school computer science teacher of "proselytizing" to students about "homosexual lifestyles" but gave no specific examples.
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Some in Palm Beach County's legal community think the suit represents the start of a new wave of parents emboldened by recent parental rights laws passed in Florida to seek damages and injunctions against school districts in the courtroom.
"There has always been tension between parents and teachers, but we will see more and more lawsuits pitting parents against teachers for the simple reason that we are becoming an evermore fractured country," said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern. "People are much more willing to sue and much less willing to listen."
Deliu said in an interview last week that the LGBTQ symbols are not the main point of his lawsuit.
"The core issue that I have a problem with is the state indoctrinating my child," he said. "The religion is the spark, but the powder keg is the politics of it."
Deliu, who represents himself in the suit, does not cite Florida's newly implemented Parental Rights in Education law, which restricts classroom discussion on gender identity and sexual orientation. Critics call it the "Don't Say Gay" law.
Instead, he based his suit on the 2021 Parental Bill of Rights law. He said his right as a parent to "direct the upbringing and the moral or religious training" of his son had been denied by the district.
Those rights are codified by that law, which legislators later built on to develop the 2022 Parental Rights in Education law.
Jarvis said this is the first lawsuit he's aware of that cites Florida's parental rights laws.
"This could well be the first lawsuit. It certainly won't be the last," Jarvis said.
The school district declined to comment on the suit or Deliu's allegations because of the pending litigation.
What happened in middle school computer class with LGBTQ flags?
Deliu's suit states the incident stemmed from a computer science class after his son told him on Sept. 16 about two "rainbow" LGBTQ pride flags on the wall in the classroom.
Deliu said his son told him the teacher used a search engine to "find websites about homosexual lifestyles" and the teacher "proselytized to the students in class," the suit states. Deliu said in an interview that he believes the teacher searched a term such as "gay pride" in response to a student asking a question about the flag. He did not give any examples of what the teacher might have said.
After his son spoke to him, Deliu complained to the school's principal.
The following week, the suit says, the principal told Deliu she had "dismissed" his complaint. Deliu asked that his son be removed from the computer class, and the school assigned him to an elective art class.
On Sept. 26, Instructional Superintendent Karen Whetsell told Deliu that his complaint was referred to the district's office of professional standards, which would conduct an investigation, the suit says. Deliu says no one has returned his communications about an investigation.
His son missed five weeks of the computer science class. Deliu says his son's education was damaged and his rights as a parent were denied by the district by allowing the flags to remain on display.
Deliu said he didn't cite the most recent Parental Rights in Education law, which took effect July 1 because he said he felt it created a "gray area" by not restricting discussions of sexuality and gender identity in the classroom beyond third grade. The law goes on to prohibit discussions that are not "age-appropriate" for later grades but does not define that term.
The law's vagueness has also come under fire in two federal court challenges by pro-LGBTQ rights groups. A judge rejected one of those cases this month, although he said the plaintiffs, Equality Florida and Family Equality, can file a revised complaint.
What does Florida law say about LGBTQ flags in classrooms?
Classrooms and teachers in Florida are governed by compounding sets of state and local laws as well as school district policy and union rules, but none explicitly prohibit LGBTQ pride flags.
The school district repeatedly revised its LGBTQ+ Critical Support Guide this summer as the Parental Rights in Education law went into effect. While the guide encourages teachers to display safe space stickers and wear pins that express their support for inclusion, it does not give any guidance on flags.
The school district does not have any other policy that specifically deals with classroom flags. Foreign language classrooms around the district display flags of other countries, and teachers also fly the colors of their favorite sports teams.
The annual collective bargaining agreement with the Classroom Teachers Association, the union that represents Palm Beach County teachers, also does not specify rules on classroom flags or decorations.
Florida law requires all public school campuses to fly the U.S. and Florida flags outside. The statute also requires a U.S. flag in every classroom but does not address any other types of classroom flags.
Although there are no explicit rules about flags in classrooms, West Palm Beach education attorney Shahar Pasch said the judge in Deliu's case could help define some of the broadest parts of the parental rights-related laws.
"Because it’s so new, there’s nothing to tell us what 'instruction' is, but I don’t think merely having the flag is instruction," she said of the section in the parental rights in the education bill that prohibits instruction on sexuality and gender identity that is not age-appropriate.
Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com.