Let’s be clear: Scott Plakon’s House Bill 25 is an attack on women and professions dominated by them.

While there may be plenty of fellow male colleagues at my school or any high school, the teaching profession is largely comprised of women. The data I saw when I did a quick search may be a few years old, but roughly 75-80% of all teachers working today are female.

HB25 is a bill, then, that is grossly misogynistic. Although on its surface it is an unnecessary layer of accountability that seeks to control and regulate union membership, the most troubling aspect is this particular part seen below:

What else is one to construe from these obvious exceptions? Nothing. It seems clear that if you are in a male dominated field—which all of the above clearly are—then you do not have to meet these requirements. So much for equality under the law…

And this is not the first time Representative Plakon has gone after women. He did it last year when he proposed HB1, which was effectively the same bill. When questioned on the House floor last year by a fellow legislator as to why police, fire, and prison guards were not included, he said something along the lines of teachers are not the ones running toward the danger; the other legislator responded with a reminder of the teachers at Sandy Hook who sacrificed their lives to save those of their students.

Clearly that did not make an impression on Mr. Misogyny.

I would hope that any teacher would do his or her best to protect the lives of the children we serve each and every day. Plakon’s ridiculous comment about teachers not running toward danger is thoroughly insulting, especially to the teachers who are veterans that served our country in the armed forces, some of whom I work with on a daily basis at my school. In fact, I can think of one former U.S. Marine in particular in my district who is tough as nails, and she would probably have a few choice words for Representative Plakon about this bill.

Even more troubling than the bill itself, however, is that fact that we’re already facing an incredible teacher shortage that the Florida Legislature is apparently hell-bent on making far, far worse in every way imaginable. As if all the unfunded mandates coming down from Tally aren’t bad enough, now they want to “decertify” unions and take away collective bargaining and any remaining vestige of job security educators currently have.

And if you think the teacher shortage is bad, we’ve got NOTHING on nurses. During several of his campaign events, gubenatorial candidate Adam Putnam has already highlighted the fact that the nursing shortage is so awful that it has been the number one job listed on several employment websites for the last seven years. Both of our professions are full of caring, nurturing people who want to help others, yet somehow we are deemed unworthy of a seat at the table to discuss our working conditions and salaries, ostensibly because women constitute the majority of the workforce in these two critically important fields.

This legislation is downright shameful; any legislator who votes for HB25 should be called out and castigated accordingly. HB1, last year’s version of this bill—not to be confused with the current bully voucher bill—didn’t really matter because there was no Senate companion. Conversely, HB25 already has a companion in SB1036, which means it is a legitimate threat to labor organizations that overwhelmingly serve women. If you’d like to help, please call 1-855-235-2469, follow the prompts to enter your zipcode, and the hotline will connect you to your local legislator. Please flood their inboxes and demand that they vote NO on HB25.

Thank you in advance for your help.