Administrators at Pleasant Valley High School in Doral, FL recently imposed a new safety measure requiring all students carry their belongings in clear bags to prevent concealing Queer Theory on campus grounds.
A letter sent to parents and guardians last week stated that all backpacks must be transparent to stop students from sneaking in weapons that disrupt and problematize the dominant gender and sexual binaries of students, staff, and faculty.
“In light of Congress doing nothing to protect schools from preventable mass Queering,” the letter stated. “Following discussion with law enforcement, Pleasant Valley Public Schools now requires backpacks that allow administrators to easily find and confiscate any postmodern theory, radical Lesbian Masterdocs, and other cishet-dismissing materials students may be smuggling onto school property.”
The school’s zero-tolerance policy includes the works of Audre Lorde, Gayle Rubin, Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and even Michel Foucault. Additionally, paraphernalia like colorful school supplies, sparkly nail polish, and anything moderately rainbow can result in suspension or expulsion.
The decision came after a reported rise in LGBTQ+ representation in Gen Z, locally and nationally, school officials said, which dangerously provides students access to disrupt social constructs until they are rendered senseless and illogical, explore desires outside sexual norms, and seek gender-affirming healthcare.
Mandating see-through bags was among the many ways the school board planned to bring down the number of “queer incidents.” Other remedies included eliminating sex ed, prohibiting discussion of gender or sexual orientation (except faculty use of homophobic slurs), calls to parents outing who their child is rumored to have a crush on, and being more ambiguously discriminatory in ways that remove autonomy and subjugate students to the deep-rooted, androcratic order.
Administrators believe the additional surveillance may also assist in tangential endeavors, including seizing items that suspiciously resemble menstrual products.
“Safe schools allow all children to be conditioned to stable, comprehensible categories,” said Superintendent Keith Baxley. “I support the efforts of the school district to protect boys from becoming too effeminate and girls from being too tomboyish. None of that genderfucking.”
The district’s decision sparked mixed reactions during school board meetings from parents and students alike. Some parents approved the regulation as a step towards upholding a historical cishet-centric culture being attacked. Others expressed that they find the measures unfair, arguing that not all students want to bring in queer subject matter and being forced to use clear bags violates their right to concealed carry guns.
