On July 19, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis passed new legislation banning teachers and administration from calling students by their preferred nicknames without parent/guardian permission. This amendment serves to, according to its text, “strengthen the rights of parents and safeguard their child’s educational record to ensure the use of the child’s legal name in school.”
Under this new amendment, students must request a form and get it signed by a parent/guardian allowing teachers to call them their preferred nicknames.
“It added a layer of paperwork in the sense that if a parent now would like for a name change to be done, or a nickname or anything that student is requesting, there’s a form that they have to fill out that they have to send to me before we can make the change. And that’s just really the only addition,” Principal Victoria Dobbs said.
“But a parent can still make the request, even a student can make the request, as long as a parent gives permission.”
The recent change in process for students requesting to be called a preferred nickname, while not a significant alteration, introduces an additional step. Now, if students just want to be called by a nickname, they have to wait and go through a paperwork process. Previously students could just say “I would prefer you to call me by…”
“I was so used to teachers calling me by my nickname that it was a little bit of an adjustment to hear people call me by my real name, like hearing my nickname every day for three years and then having them call me my real name out of the sudden it’s been so weird and hard to adjust to. I think it makes it more of a personal connection when teachers are able to associate a person with their nickname,” senior Catherine Green said.
The ruling goes further than an inconvenience to students. There could be a student who does not feel comfortable asking their parents about changing their name. A student might view school as a safe environment whereas they can be a different version of themselves then what they might be at home. This new legislation jeopardizes that safe haven that school is supposed to be for all students.
A student might not feel comfortable being who they are at home, but at school, they may feel a sense of comfort in the ability to be themselves. The amendment imposes new requirements on students and teachers regarding what a student wants to be called in the classroom, mandating that they take extra steps to be called what they prefer.
