Are we free in Florida?
Fact Checking Florida Freedom.
Medical Freedom
This has been a hot button topic over the past three years. Let’s discuss how ‘medically free’ we are in Florida.
Forced Vaccination:
DeSantis got on TV in November of 2021 claiming he didn’t know we could be forcibly vaccinated in Florida under FL Statute 381.00315. He took the word “vaccine” out of the language on that one. However, if you read this statute we can still be forced to be “tested, treated, quarantined, etc…under any means necessary”. Remember when the media started calling a covid vaccine a ‘treatment’ for covid. Yeah.
A 2019 judge’s bench guide also cites FL Statute 381.003 (1) (e) claiming we can be forcibly vaccinated under this statute. Nothing has been done to rectify this even though many people and groups have brought it up to his office.
Marijuana:
We still have to get a medical marijuana card in order to use marijuana in the state of Florida. Should you have cancer or another illness that you want to treat with your own marijuana that you grow yourself and know is 100% organic - that’s against the law. Many cancer patients have brought this up that they’re concerned that the only state approved medical marijuana stores do not have what they actually need to beat cancer.
Naturopathic type doctors:
Naturopathic doctors are not recognized in FL as doctors. If you are upset with how a hospital is treating you, you cannot be released to your naturopathic physician since Florida will not recognize their profession. During Covid, it was many of the naturally minded doctors who were silenced for their treatments that patients were seeking out. Many of their patients died on respirators in allopathic hospitals that would not release them to any doctors or family members. (The courts were closed, so you could not get an emergency injunction to get your family member out.)
Holding hospitals accountable:
DeSantis signed SB 7014 making it illegal to sue a hospital over their bad covid protocols that harm or kill your family members up until June 2023. Curious how that date was chosen since it seems to correspond with “the end of covid”.
2A Carry
When DeSantis first came into office he said he supported red flag laws, then 2020 happened and he started saying he would sign 2A carry if it came across his desk. Let’s look at what Florida actually did.
Second Amendment Carry:
It was promised during the 2022 election cycle. The righties would tell us Libertarians that we should vote red because they’ll protect our gun rights. “Florida is Free” was drilled into our heads the whole cycle with fear mongering over what would happen if the left won.
Just before the 2023 FL Session:
DeSantis got on TV promising second amendment carry. Then came the bill. It wasn’t 2A carry. It was permit-less concealed carry as long as you had an ID on you….and you can only carry a handgun. That was it.
Then the committee meetings started in Tallahassee. Over 100 people would sign up to speak, most of them demanding 2A Carry. (There were some lefties there against all the guns, too, the meetings were basically full of people who were happy with nothing.)
When you tried speaking with the lawmakers on the right, every single one of them had an excuse for why they just wouldn’t or couldn’t get 2A Carry passed - and they currently have a super majority in the house and senate.
Permit-less carry is what was passed:
We didn’t get 2A Carry, but Republicans claimed on tv that they were pro-freedom and that we should all be happy with what was passed. 2A Carry was talked about so much that some people believe that 2A Carry is what we have and we predict that someone will be arrested simply for not fully understanding what the current law is here in Florida.
Homeschooling/School Choice
It was supposed to be an end to the cold wars happening in all the school board meetings across the state.
Difficult school board meetings:
We all know those school board meetings were nuts. You had people on the right and the left trying to control what is taught and done in these government schools. People across the country agreed that children shouldn’t be put in the middle of a cold war. We all thought school choice would be a better solution for these children so they could focus on learning instead of on their parents/school politics.
Before the 2023 FL Session:
HB1 was submitted right after delegation session meetings (this is where you have three minutes to tell your local lawmakers what you want out of the upcoming session - session is 60 days in FL). It was a nightmare for homeschoolers. It had language in there saying that homeschoolers could now receive money towards homeschooling along with a “navigator'“ from the government to help you figure out the best way to homeschool. The language was vague making umbrella schools feel like they were going to have to shut down or comply. Homeschoolers who had enjoyed signing their children up for one class or after school activity were now going to be monitored by the state via testings where all their information is sent out to a university to see how they’re doing.
For the private schoolers:
The families wanting money for private school did get a better deal for their children. Now they have some extra money to help them afford private schools. Most of these families are used to government testing in government schools so the testing that comes with it isn’t phasing them like it is the homeschoolers.
Some private schools are already complaining that if the government steps in and dictates what they have to teach (like they’re currently doing with VPK), they will not accept the scholarships. So, we’ll see how this goes.
What was passed:
For Homeschoolers: The navigator and the umbrella schools having to shut down was taken out of the final bill. Homeschooled students will have to sit for government school tests if they sign their children up for a class or extra curricular activity with government schools or take any money for tutoring/curriculum. We’re still forced to pay for these schools and now the government has more ways to track us homeschoolers if we take any money while the feds squeeze us with inflation.
For Private Schoolers: Private schools need to have their curriculum approved by the state to accept the scholarships and students still need to take government tests so they can keep receiving the scholarships. The left is worried now that the government schools will go out of business and their own private schools they want to create will not qualify for the scholarships since the right government we have in FL will not approve of their curriculum.