Israel is preventing any celebration of the freed children and adults from Israeli prisons, at the same time the Israeli media along with the world has splashed the joyous reunions of Israeli families with the captives that Hamas released. See again how degrading and subhuman Israel treats Palestinians. No Palestinian / Arab family can rejoice that their child is home will whole towns hold parades for the Jewish / Israeli children coming home. It is sickening to me, and again creates more hate and ill will. Hugs. Scottie
In another fuck you to the Palestinians, Israel arrested all most as many as they released. Over the same days that it released some 150 Palestinian detainees, Israel arrested 133 people, nearly as many, from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian prisoner associations. Since October 7, Israel carried out 3,290 arrests in the same areas, which it has occupied since 1967.
Mohammad Salhab Tamimi, 18, was returned to his family on Tuesday as part of an ongoing prisoner exchange deal.
Mohammad was relieved and happy, yet subdued and traumatised by what he had been through [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera]
By Mosab Shawer
Published On 29 Nov 202329 Nov 2023
Hebron, occupied West Bank – After eight months in Israeli prisons without being charged or processed, 18-year-old Mohammad Salhab Tamimi was finally able to return to his family as part of an ongoing prisoner exchange deal.
His boyish face was serious as he embraced his parents and stood, slightly bewildered, as if he was unsure whether to speak to the press or not.
He had been through a lot in the past eight months of uncertainty, torment that only increased since the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7.
The last thing he was told by the forbidding Israeli prison guards was that he would be rearrested and put back into the limbo of administrative detention if his family and friends showed any signs of celebrating his return.
“’Tell your friends [they said]’… If we have a big celebration, I will return to prison,” he recalled.
Wary of the Israeli military checkpoint and illegal settlement next to their home, his family kept their happiness on mute, with only the immediate family and some uncles present.
Shackled, kicked around, humiliated
Luckily for the family, smiles don’t make any noise, and nobody could stop the smiles on his mother Fatima and father Murshid’s faces as they held tightly to their “little boy”.
Mohammad with Fatima and Murshid, beaming with joy, but quietly [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera]
Their boy was among the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Ofer prison near Ramallah in the small hours of Tuesday overnight. Up to the last minute, he had not been sure what was happening to him.
At 7am (05:00 GMT) on Monday, November 27, a guard at Rimon Prison demanded that Mohammad get ready to be transferred to Ofer Prison. That was all; nothing about the reason why he was being moved. Just told to strip off completely, put on just a grey prison sweatsuit, and gather all his belongings.
“I put my clothes in one of those plastic envelopes and walked to the cell door where they cuffed my hands and forced my head down so I was looking at the ground.
“The officer then kicked me, hard. His boots have steel in them, so it felt like he crushed my feet, it really hurt.
“He dragged me to the prison yard but, as he was dragging me out of the prison, he stopped to take my clothes from me and threw them into a garbage pail. Then, cursing me with obscene language, he dragged me out,” Mohammad recalled haltingly.
Bosta rides can take 12 hours or more. There are no rest stops, food, or toilet breaks. “I was kept in the vehicle cell without anything to eat or drink until after midnight,” said Mohammad.
Mohammad was made to strip down and wear only a grey prison sweatsuit. All his other belongings were thrown away by a prison guard who was beating and cursing him at the same time [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera]
His father and uncle were standing there outside Ofer, waiting for him, when he was finally released in the wee hours on Tuesday so they could drive him home to Hebron in the south of the occupied West Bank.
A decision to humiliate
Things were more unpleasant than usual in prison after October 7, which was when Hamas launched a surprise attack from Gaza on southern Israel killing some 1,200 people.
People held in several institutions have reported severe beatings, denial of medical attention, lawyer and family visits, yard time, electricity, water, and hygiene essentials from the prison shop.
At least six Palestinian prisoners died or were killed in Israeli custody since October 7, including some shortly after their arrest.
Israel’s relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip after the Hamas attack lasted 48 days and killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, including more than 6,000 children.
On the 49th day, Friday, a four-day “humanitarian pause” negotiated by Egypt and Qatar began. Both sides said they would release captives – Hamas would release batches of people it took captive on October 7 in return for three times as many Palestinians held – with and without cause – in Israeli detention facilities.
As the exchanges continued and optimism rose, the truce was extended by two days to keep the exchanges going.
Mohammad was very happy to see his mother, Fatima, again [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera]
Over the same days that it released some 150 Palestinian detainees, Israel arrested 133 people, nearly as many, from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian prisoner associations. Since October 7, Israel carried out 3,290 arrests in the same areas, which it has occupied since 1967.
Mohammad is not the first released person to say that there is extreme overcrowding in Israeli prisons.
“There were 10 prisoners shoved into cells that only had six beds. We used to have to spread blankets or something on the floor to sleep,” he said.
The amount of food they were given was insufficient, as it was also for six prisoners, not 10. The cellmates had to ration what food they got carefully.
Several prisoners were injured one day as well, Mohammad said, when prison guards attacked two sections of Rimon Prison
Aside from injuries and the reported deaths, Mohammad said: “The [Israeli] occupation had pretty much decided that they would humiliate the prisoners, ever since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Storm.”
Cut off from any news of the outside world, the detainees found themselves stripped of almost everything, including all possessions that were in their cells like utensils and appliances, they used to make things a little more pleasant. They were deprived of buying hygiene supplies, including laundry detergent, and barred from using the washing machines to wash their clothes.
Prison authorities also kept the prisoners away from their only outlet to let off some steam – the “fora”, or prison yard, and prevented them from making any noise.
“I used to love making the call to prayer from inside my cell so the whole section could hear, but that too was forbidden.
“It felt like they didn’t want us to even breathe.”
This one is on the first boy I posted about, but from a different source and with a lot more detail of his abuse. At one point the boy was blindfolded and every time someone would walk by the would slap or hit him. I know that terror, that fear, of not knowing when those around you would explode in anger or casually take a shot at you to constantly show their authority and dislike of you. I 3 more of these to post today and then I am done with this subject for a while. The genocide and abuse over there I can not stop, but I can let people know what is happening. But even I need a break from it. Hugs. Scottie
Ramallah, February 10, 2021—An Israeli interrogator allegedly physically and sexually assaulted a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in Israeli custody during interrogation in mid-January at a Jerusalem detention facility.
The 15-year-old boy* was detained by Israeli paramilitary border police forces from his home around 5 a.m. on January 13, 2021, in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya. Israeli forces transferred him to Al-Mascobiyya interrogation and detention center in West Jerusalem where he was bound and blindfolded and detained in an interrogation room. An individual accused him of throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and then allegedly subjected the boy to physical and sexual violence amounting to torture, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine.
“Israeli forces routinely subject Palestinian child detainees to systematic ill-treatment and torture following arrest,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program Director at DCIP. “These latest allegations are a particularly disturbing reminder that Palestinian children in Israeli custody are vulnerable to all forms of violence. Israeli authorities must immediately investigate these allegations that amount to torture.”
DCIP maintains that all children must be entitled to have a parent present at all times during interrogation, as well as have access to a lawyer of their choice prior to interrogation and throughout the interrogation process. DCIP demands that all interrogations of children must be audio-visually recorded.
When he was detained on January 13, the boy was already subject to house arrest following a previous arrest in November 2020 and was scheduled to appear in court that day.
Upon arrival at Al-Mascobiyya interrogation and detention center, the boy was forced to sit in a hallway bound and blindfolded where he was subject to physical violence by those passing by, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
“Every two to three minutes, someone would come by and slap, push, punch, or kick me,” the boy told DCIP. “I kept silent and never said anything. I did not know what was going on, but it was painful and tiring.”
He was eventually brought into an interrogation room. “A man came to the room and told me his name was Captain Kamel,” the boy told DCIP. “He kicked me and punched me while shouting and saying I should tell him what I did. Whenever I told him I did not do anything, he would beat me harder. He threatened to shock me with electricity, but I told him I did not do anything.”
The boy alleges the individual then knocked him to the floor while blindfolded and raped him with an object, according to documentation collected by DCIP. The individual threatened that the sexual violence would continue unless he confessed to the allegations against him.
The boy was then made to stand against a wall, where the individual inflicted extreme pain on his genitals. “There are no words to describe that moment,” the boy told DCIP. The Captain subsequently threatened the boy, telling him that the physical and sexual violence would continue if he told his lawyer what had occurred.
Around 15 minutes after the incident, Israeli forces transferred the boy to another room where he met with a lawyer for about five minutes. Then, he was taken to a room where a man in civilian clothing introduced himself as an Israeli interrogator. The boy was interrogated for almost four hours, during which he experienced verbal abuse and was forced to sign papers written in Hebrew, the content of which he did not understand, according to information collected by DCIP.
With his court session adjourned for four days, the boy was detained in a room with four other children for three days. After that time, he was again taken to an interrogation room. He was interrogated for approximately four hours, at the end of which he was again forced to sign papers in Hebrew. The following day, January 17, he was released under the terms of house arrest pending another court session at a later date, according to information collected by DCIP.
“What he did to me was very oppressive and humiliating,” the boy told DCIP. “I want this house arrest to end because it is exhausting. I want my life back. I want to leave the house and see my friends.”
Palestinian children in East Jerusalem are prosecuted in Israel’s civilian criminal legal system, not the Israeli military court system, due to Israeli authorities’ unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem, a move unrecognized by the international community. Palestinian children living in East Jerusalem are generally subject to the Israeli Youth Law, which theoretically applies equally to Palestinian and Israeli children in Jerusalem. However, evidence collected by DCIP clearly demonstrates that Israeli authorities implement the law in a discriminatory manner, denying Palestinian children in East Jerusalem of their rights from the moment of arrest to the end of legal proceedings.
Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system are overwhelmingly subjected to widespread and systematic violence and ill-treatment, according to documentation by DCIP. Between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2019, DCIP collected sworn affidavits from 752 child detainees, describing their arrest, interrogation, and detention experiences. Of these, 72 percent were subjected to physical violence and 61 percent to verbal abuse. Less than one percent were threatened with sexual violence; however, sexual violence amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment are known to be underreported by child detainee survivors.
A 2015 study on sexual torture by Israeli authorities found that the sexual torture of adult Palestinian male detainees by Israeli authorities is systematic, and includes verbal sexual harassment, forced nudity, and physical sexual assault.
*The boy’s name is known to DCIP but is not disclosed here due to privacy concerns.
When the 13 or 14 year old boy was released, the Israeli media made a big deal of him saying he was made to take off his clothing and was sexually abused. They don’t way what the abuse was but it is hinted he was raped. I am against the rape of anyone! Full stop. But that said, Israel and their supporters are deliberately ignoring the abuse, physical, sexual, and psychological / emotional, of Palestinian children by the Israeli government and military. Please notice the age of the Palestinian boy when he was detained. He was 16. He had been held for 2 years with no charges, and most children detained are denied the ability to contact family or their parents. Hugs. Scottie
At least five Palestinian prisoners reported dead from abuse in Israeli jails, according to testimony of freed teens
Osama Marmash, 16, speaking to Al Jazeera after he was released from Megiddo prison on Sunday 26 November 2023 (Screengrab)
Published date: 27 November 2023 13:49 GMT | Last update:1 week 4 days ago
Palestinian children freed from Israeli jails as part of a prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel said they were subjected to torture in captivity and that several fellow detainees were beaten to death.
The teens are among 39 Palestinians freed from Israeli detention on Sunday, in the third prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, while the latter released 13 Israelis held in Gaza.
The exchange took place for the third straight day amid a temporary four-day truce in Gaza, the first such halt of fighting since the hostilities began on 7 October.
Khalil Mohamed Badr al-Zamaira, 18, was among those released. He was 16 when he was detained by Israeli forces.
He said Palestinian prisoners are being mistreated and beaten in prison, and there is no different treatment for children.
“They didn’t differentiate between old and young,” he told Middle East Eye.
“Two teens were transferred from Ofer prison with broken ribs. They were unable to move.”
Likewise, Omar al-Atshan, a freed Palestinian teen, said he was mistreated and tortured in Naqab prison where he had been held prior to his release.
“The mistreatment was indescribable,” he told Al Jazeera during a live coverage of the arrival of released prisoners in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.
He said that they were routinely beaten and humiliated in prison, and that water and food were scarce.
During their release, Israeli soldiers ordered them to lower their heads, and then beat them, he said.
“Our happiness is not complete because there are other captives still in detention,” he said, adding that one captive, which he identified as Thaer Abu Assab, was beaten to death in custody.
Omar al-Atshan speaking to Al Jazeera on Sunday
“He was subjected to too much beating. We cried for help, but doctors arrived after an hour and a half after he was already dead from torture.
“He was tortured because of a question; he asked the warden whether there was a truce. Then he got beaten to death.”
Four prisoners tortured to death in Megiddo
Another freed child, Osama Marmash, also gave a similar testimony to Al Jazeera.
The 16 year old was held in Megiddo prison before his release. He told Al Jazeera that four Palestinian captives were tortured to death in Megiddo.
Marmash said he sustained wounds to his foot and back because of beating.
‘My prison clothes were white but then turned red from blood stains’
– Osama Marmash, released Palestinian teen
“My prison clothes were white but then turned red from blood stains,” he said.
The food was very little, he said, and was often “inedible”.
He added that they were mistreated on their journey to the West Bank.
“The road was difficult. They turned off the air conditioner on the bus. We were suffocating,” he said.
The truce between Hamas and Israel is supposed to see around 150 Palestinian women and children prisoners and 50 Israelis held in Gaza be released over a period of four days.
Hamas, for its part, released 13 Israeli prisoners, including nine children, as well as four foreign nationals – three Thais and one Israeli-Russian.
US President Joe Biden said that that a four-year-old Israeli-American girl whose parents were killed on 7 October was also freed.
Hamas said in a statement that the Israeli-Russian dual national was released “in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts and in recognition of Russia’s position in support of Palestine”.
The Russian is the first male prisoner to be released by Hamas in the truce deal.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
Think about it. An occupied oppressed group of people not concidered fully human by the population of Israel. A group not afforded rights, civil legal protections, denied food, water, the ability to go where they wish when they wish. A group used for labor, cheap labor who can and do have their stuff taken from them by the majority. Labor that must be done when, where, and how the oppressive majority tells them. A group of people who can be attacked, harmed, and even killed by the oppressing majority with no right to defend themselves or justice after. What did we call that in the US? Yes we called it slavery, immoral, wrong. And yes it created anger, hate, and rage against those doing the oppressing in those being oppressed. That is what is going on and why Israel can not militarily destroy Hamas, they are just creating more enemies with every military act of destruction. Hugs. Scottie
All Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including children, have been subject to Israeli military law since 1967, when Israel annexed it.
Israeli settlers living in the same territory, however, are subject to Israeli civilian law – a crystal clear example of apartheid.
Despite the fact that international norms affirm that civilians, including children, must never be brought before military courts, Israel remains the only country in the world to automatically and systematically prosecute children in military courts.
Torture
These children, who are almost all boys, range in age from 12 – the age of criminal responsibility under Israeli military law – to 17, although DCIP has documented cases where children younger than 12 were detained and harassed by Israeli forces for hours.
Under international law, a child is any person under the age of 18.
Between 2016 and 2022, DCIP collected sworn affidavits from 766 Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military and prosecuted in Israeli military courts to track their experiences of ill-treatment and torture at the hands of Israeli forces.
Thanks to that data, we can say confidently that denying the basic human rights of Palestinian children is business as usual for Israeli forces.
Israel-Palestine war: Freed Palestinian children say fellow prisoners were ‘tortured to death’
Three out of five of these children are detained from their homes in the middle of the night, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces show up at a Palestinian family’s home at two or three in the morning, break down the door, wake up the whole family, and drag the child out of his bed.
At that moment, 75 percent of children experience some form of physical violence at the hands of Israeli soldiers.
After that, nearly all children are blindfolded and hand-tied before being forced into an Israeli military vehicle en route to an interrogation centre, often located in an illegal Israeli settlement. During this time, that child’s parents have no idea where he’s being taken or when he will come home.
Upon arrival at an Israeli interrogation centre, 80 percent of children are strip-searched by Israeli soldiers. Then, an adult Israeli interrogator, speaking expert Arabic, interrogates the child without the presence of a family member or a lawyer.
In fact, there is no right to a lawyer during interrogation under Israeli military law. Two-thirds of children are not properly informed of their rights, and 55 percent are forced to sign documents in Hebrew, a language they don’t understand.
Detained without charge
Israeli interrogators place one in four children into pre-trial solitary confinement for the purpose of extracting a confession – a method deemed torture by the United Nations.
All of this happens before a trial – also conducted by Israeli soldiers in a military court. The conviction rate is higher than 95 percent, a number that tells you all you need to know about the Israeli military’s interest in justice.
The most common charge against children is stone-throwing, which carries a potential maximum sentence of up to 20 years.
Israeli interrogators place one in four children into pre-trial solitary confinement for the purpose of extracting a confession – a method deemed torture by the United Nations
However, many Palestinians, including children, are detained by the Israeli military without charge or trial, meaning they are held indefinitely in Israeli military prisons, a practice known as administrative detention.
DCIP has documented cases where Palestinian children are held in administrative detention for more than a year.
The Israeli military detention system, at every point, is designed to exert complete control over Palestinian children and their families. From the moment Israeli soldiers break into a Palestinian family’s home in the middle of the night, children know that their parents cannot keep them safe.
While many Palestinian children have been released from Israeli prisons this week, Israeli forces have been busy conducting raids and arrests every night across the occupied West Bank.
Even with the whole world watching, Israeli military brutality is operating with impunity, like clockwork, emboldened by the killing of more than 6,000 Palestinian children in Gaza, with only a handful of world leaders holding them accountable.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
***Serious topic and tripper warning for sexual abuse and rape of minors***
Recently the Anti-Defamation League, the Israeli government, and main stream media especially CNN has been pushing hard the narrative that Hamas sexual abused / raped some women they captured. When several people condemned Hamas and then also condemned Israel for doing it to Palestinian prisoners, the show’s hosts tried to quickly shut down the criticism of Israel and again tried to focus on only the events done by Hamas. I have been posting for years the abuse and mistreatment of the Palestinian prisoners who are often held without charges for long periods of time, especially minors who are not allowed to contact parents or family. Often the family are not told their children or other members have even been detained. Remember for Palestinians there is no due process, no civilian courts. They are under military rule. I did a search for Israel prisoner abuse, and these are some of the first things that the search displayed. Notice they are about sexual abuse and rape, and the majority of the victims are boys. In one UN article I read, sexual torture and rape of men as old as 40 has been reported and verified as credible, and as young as 15. We don’t know if there are younger victims who have not come forward. Hugs. Scottie
Since the Second Intifada, in 2000, when DCIP began tracking Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military, Israeli forces have detained, interrogated, prosecuted and imprisoned approximately 13,000 Palestinian children.
NGO Defense for Children International’s offices were raided after they reported the sexual assault of a 15-year-old by an interrogator while in Israeli custody
Former US State Department official Josh Paul resigned over sales of arms to Israel in October (Social media)
Published date: 5 December 2023 15:08 GMT | Last update:2 days 21 hours ago
Israeli authorities banned a Palestinian NGO after it reported the rape of a Palestinian child by Israeli forces to the US State Department in 2021, former official Josh Paul said in a CNN interview on Monday.
That followed a complaint made by the US State Department about the rape of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in Al-Mascobiyya detention centre in West Jerusalem.
“[They] removed their computers and declared them a terrorist entity,” Paul said.
The DCIP is the only Palestinian human rights organisation specifically focused on children’s rights.
In February 2021, the DCIP published a report documenting the physical and sexual assault against a 15-year-old Palestinian boy by an Israeli interrogator at Al-Mascobiyya interrogation and detention facility in January that year.
The DCIP reported that the detainee had been raped with an object by his interrogator and that he was made to stand against a wall where his interrogator inflicted severe pain on his genitals.
“There are no words to describe that moment,” the detainee said in the report.
A campaign of repression
According to Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability programme director at DCIP, the NGO reported the assault to US officials following hundreds of unresolved complaints filed with the Israeli authorities.
“We used to submit complaints [to the Israeli authorities],” Eqtaish told MEE. “but they would not open investigations…or they would open investigations and close them under the pretext that there was no cooperation from the child or lawyer.”
According to Eqtaish, the DCIP stopped filing complaints with the Israeli authorities as they would not allow a child giving witness statements to be accompanied by a lawyer.
“So we passed the information to US officials and asked for clarification from the Israeli authorities,” Eqtaish told MEE.
“[Israel wanted to] paralyse the organisation and prevent us from revealing Israeli human rights violations against Palestinian children’
– Ayed Abu Eqtaish, DCIP
Following the complaint, DCIP offices were raided twice by Israeli forces, on 19 July 2021, and again on 18 August 2022, when their offices were raided and “sealed off” along with the offices of seven other Palestinian NGOs, in what Amnesty International condemned as a “campaign of repression against Palestinian civil society”.
But according to Eqtaish, the DCIP had not made the connection between the complaint they had filed with the State Department and the subsequent raids until Paul’s comments on Monday, although Eqtaish added that Paul’s interpretation was “logical”.
“The organisation had already been under attack [by the Israeli authorities] for several years before the raids,” Eqtaish told MEE, adding: “[They wanted to] paralyse the organisation and prevent us from revealing Israeli human rights violations against Palestinian children.”
An atmosphere of uncertainty
In October 2021, the DCIP was designated a terrorist organisation by Israeli authorities along with five other Palestinian NGOs.
The move was condemned by the UN human rights commissioner as a “frontal attack on the Palestinian human rights movement and on human rights everywhere”.
In the immediate aftermath of the designation, Eqtaish said that, among the DCIP staff, the “whole atmosphere was surrounded with uncertainty…we didn’t know exactly when they would attack us again and what the type of attack would be,” he said.
Why Israel can torture detained Palestinian children with impunity
Following the designation, NGO staff were inundated with queries from anxious donors.
“Instead of concentrating on our work, we had to respond to these questions,” Eqtaish told MEE. “The designation was threatening our existence as an organisation.”
Despite this, DCIP retained all but one of its donors.
“The main purpose of the designation was to dismantle our organisation, but we continue our work,” Eqtaish said.
Since the Second Intifada, in 2000, when DCIP began tracking Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military, Israeli forces have detained, interrogated, prosecuted and imprisoned approximately 13,000 Palestinian children.
Between 2016 and 2022, DCIP collected sworn affidavits from 766 Palestinian childrendetained by the Israeli military and prosecuted in Israeli military courts to track their experiences of ill-treatment and torture at the hands of Israeli forces.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. (left) likes to troll journalists on Twitter and stage feisty debates over preferred pronouns. Meanwhile, Florida’s SAT scores have dropped once again. The state ranks 45th in America. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
New rankings show Florida students are posting some of the lowest SAT scores in America.
We’re talking 46th place. Down another 17 points overall to 966, according to the combined reading and math scores shared by the College Board.
Florida trails other Southern states like South Carolina and Georgia. We trail states where more students take the test, like Illinois and Indiana.
We somehow now even slightly trail Washington, D.C. — a district long maligned as one of the supposedly worst in America, where all students take the test.
This should be an all-hands-on-deck crisis. Yet what are Florida education officials obsessing over?
Pronouns. And censoring books.
While other states focus on algebra and reading comprehension, Florida’s top education officials are waging wars with teachers about what kind of pronouns they can use and defending policies that have led to books by Ernest Hemingway and Zora Neale Hurston being removed from library shelves. We are reaping what they sow.
But perhaps the most disturbing thing about Florida’s current crop of top education officials isn’t just the misguided policies they’re pushing, it’s the way they behave. Like it’s all a joke. Like Twitter trolls.
They’re calling names, mocking those trying to have serious conversations about education and generally reveling in owning the libs.
A few months ago, Orlando Sentinel education reporter Leslie Postal spent weeks trying to get public records about a newly hired state education employee. Postal just wanted to explain to taxpayers how their money was being spent. But state officials refused to answer questions.
So Postal wrote up the piece, and Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz shared the piece on Twitter (now X) with a two-word comment: “Cry more!”
For those of you who don’t speak troll, “Cry more” is a response used by some social-media users — usually those juvenile in age or intellect — to mock someone who is unhappy. The folks at Urban Dictionary, who revel in all things trolly, define “Cry More” as a “phrase used in online games when someone is getting owned, and they b*tch about it.”
The game in question here, mind you, was the Sentinel’s two-month quest to get answers about how the state was spending tax dollars. And the response from the state’s top education official was: “Cry more!” What a role model for students.
That’s just one example. Last week, after I wrote a column about rampant book-censorship in the state — with one district shelving 300 titles — State Board of Education Member Ryan Petty responded (at quarter ’til 1 in the morning): “Just dumb. This passes as journalism.” Followed by a clown emoji.
OK, for argument’s sake, let’s say I’m the dumbest clod to ever set foot in the Sunshine State. Petty still wouldn’t answer any of the direct questions posed in both the column and on Twitter. Specifically, if the goal isn’t widespread book-banning, why won’t his education department provide a definitive list of what books it believes students shouldn’t have access to in school?
Petty opted for emojis over answers, because that’s what trolls do.
A member of the state board of education offers his insightful take on book censorship in Florida schools
If this is all "dumb" – and the goal isn't just to sow chaos – why won't DOE provide a definitive list of what books it believes students shouldn't have access to in school? https://t.co/QDGSYLFukm
The responses on Twitter to Diaz and Petty — both appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis — were about what you’d expect. One user told Petty: “My ninth grader could have crafted a more articulate response.” Several users responded similarly to Diaz’s “Cry More!” post, questioning his ability to maturely discuss policy and referring back to a Miami Herald investigation into student claims of “inappropriate behavior” by Diaz back when he was a teacher; claims Diaz said were bogus smears.
None of this did a thing to address this state’s education issues. Yet that’s where we are in Florida these days, mired in culture wars and trolling each other.
We also saw something similar last week when Diaz refused to directly answer questions from Orange County Public Schools about whether teachers were allowed to honor the requests of transgender students who wanted to be addressed with different pronouns — if the teachers wanted to and if those students also had their parents’ written permission. (Think about how bizarre it is that schools must even ask that question … in the so-called “parental rights” state.)
In his response to the district, Diaz offered a theatrical and condescending response that referred to “false” pronouns but which school officials concluded didn’t actually answer the question in a straightforward manner. Just more troll games … involving a population of teens more prone to self-harm and suicide, no less.
As far as the SAT goes, the test certainly has its share of legitimate critics. But it’s still one of the best apples-to-apples metrics we have for student learning.
Yet hardly any Florida media organizations even covered the October release of the new SAT scores that showed Florida’s poor showing. Why? Because we’ve been trained to follow the bouncing-ball, culture-war debate of the day.
So we see plenty of coverage about Florida supposedly ranking No. 1 in “educational freedom” by partisan political groups and scant addition to real education issues.
Call me old-fashioned, but I like hard numbers more than political posturing or magazine rankings. So do others who actually care about and study education.
Paul Cottle, a physics professor who authors a blog that focuses on STEM education, noted Florida’s increasingly cruddy SAT scores back in October when they were released — when everyone else was focused on the debate-of-the-day.
Cottle noted that Florida’s math scores for 4th graders were solid but that the SAT scores for graduating seniors were so bad, they suggested something was going awry for students before Florida schools sent them into the real world.
Cottle called the showing “a sad state of affairs.”
He’s right. Yet we’re getting precisely the educational environment and results that our culture-warring politicians are cultivating — an environment where trolls thrive, even if students don’t.
I am not sure how many people who visit here have seen the republican debate? But during it DeathSantis was bragging about how since he banned woke and passed the “don’t say gay laws” for Florida schools and the state was forcing kids away from higher education and into trade schools, how improved and better Florida schools / education was. Yet here is proof that bigotry and hate plus regressive policies on tolerance, acceptance, and enjoyment of higher learning can harm the students of Florida! And as the article notes, knowing this result was coming DeathSantis is desperately trying to do away with the tests entirely, preferring to use a home school / religious based test that is not recognized as valid by any schools except religious based ones. Hugs. Scottie
New rankings show Florida students are posting some of the lowest SAT scores in America. We’re talking 46th place. Down another 17 points overall to 966, according to the combined reading and math scores shared by the College Board.
Florida trails other Southern states like South Carolina and Georgia. We trail states where more students take the test, like Illinois and Indiana. We somehow now even slightly trail Washington, D.C. — a district long maligned as one of the supposedly worst in America, where all students take the test.
This should be an all-hands-on-deck crisis. Yet what are Florida education officials obsessing over? While other states focus on algebra and reading comprehension, Florida’s top education officials are waging wars with teachers about what kind of pronouns they can use.
DeSantis, you will recall, wants to do away with the SAT and replace it with a so-called “Classic Learning Test.”
Florida SAT scores have plummeted again. We’re now 46th in America. And all the state’s top education officials have to offer are culture wars – and tweets like “Cry more!” and “Just dumb.”
SAT scores on reading and math continue dropping for Florida students.
But don’t worry— the DeSantis administration made sure to expand ‘Don’t Say LGBTQ’ to 12th grade and to remove trans students from school sports, so everything will be fine. pic.twitter.com/VeDgoqnOZe
The damage he’s done will manifest in the years to come. When there’s no employment, no education, no insurance, no tax payers, they’ll realize what a mess he made.
It’s more than an oddity that uber Red states are the lowest in ranking in health care teen pregnancies education and economics well being. Using it as over lay to GOP MAGA types it sort of encompasses all
Yup. I never imagined we could have a worse governor than Jeb….then along came Rick the 5th, who was & is awful. Then along came this piece of human excrement, nodding to Jeb & Rick….”hold my beer”.
In the 50’s, my father was a VP at a Florida college. Before I came along, he moved his family out. He predicted in the 70’s to me Florida would be last in education. He had no idea that it would be this type of republican education that would cause it. He felt it was government not supporting public education, so I guess he was right about Republicans too. He was a new deal democrat. . Maybe George Soros will spend to push a mass mailing to all Republican run states on how their education sucks.
I was an elementary student for almost five years in the late 50’s early 60’s. When we moved to Ohio I was behind in almost all subjects but, luckily, I caught up quickly. Florida education has never been outstanding as far as I know…but it seems it was better then than now!
DeSantis wants to rig it so that mis-educated Florida students can’t get accepted to any out of state colleges and universities. Keep ‘m stupid and they’ll vote for republicans.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is considering legal action against a Wisconsin-based group calling for his resignation, he said last week.
“To think they’re going to continue to bully teachers is outrageous,” Walters said, referring to the Freedom from Religion Foundation. “The options we’re looking at are very wide, very broad. Could be legal memos. Could be lawsuits.”
Walters and the FFRF took turns calling each other bullies after the organization complained to Prague Public Schools about Christian prayers being including in the elementary building’s daily activities. The district agreed to discontinue the prayers.
Parents in Prague are upset after finding out that their kids have been going to Bible studies at school, given Bibles, and have had a morning prayer over the intercom the past couple of weeks at Prague Elementary School. “There are kids who are either getting picked on or bullied because they don’t believe these things and aren’t choosing to be a part of these bible studies,” said one parent, who wanted to remain anonymous.
“From how I understand it is that the kids went to the Guidance Counselor and the Counselor helped organize it and get it going but the kids had to lead it, it’s a loophole in the law.” The anonymous parent has four kids who go to Prague Elementary and said one came home with two Bibles and told her she was headed to school to learn about God. She also said that every morning over the intercom there was a morning prayer because all of the kids “wanted to do it,” according to school staff.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters took to social media voicing his opinion on the Prague Public School District’s decision to stop daily prayer broadcasts.
“We’re going to continue to fight for religious liberty and religious freedom here in the state of Oklahoma,” said Walters. The fallout comes after News 4 talked to parents upset their children had been going to Bible study and prayer was being done over the intercom, both actions the Freedom from Religion Foundation says are unconstitutional.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation is calling for Walters to resign. The Prague School District released a statement stating its leadership “is dedicated to following the law and protecting the rights of every student to freely exercise his or her religion.”
Walters appeared here last month when he joined the Trump campaign to “stop the cancer of teachers unions.”
In August, Walters approved far-right PragerU’s climate change-denying, anti-LGBTQ, racist videos for use in Oklahoma public schools.
The FBI is currently investigating Walters’ department for misspending $1.7M in education funds on items such as “kitchen appliances, power tools, furniture, and entertainment.”
Walters has posted a ranting video in which he baselessly claimed that China is secretly funding Tulsa’s public schools. His claim was immediately denounced by Tulsa officials.
In June, Walters appeared here when he announced that Oklahoma’s public schools will soon have a mandatory daily prayer, the mandatory posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, and a mandatory high school course in “Western civilization.”
In July, Walters declared that Oklahoma public school students will be taught that the infamous 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was not inspired by racism.
Many expect Walters to run for governor when fellow Christian nationalist Gov. Kevin Stitt is term-limited out of office. He recently headlined at the Family Research Council’s annual far-right “Pray, Vote, Stand” summit.
In the video below, Walters rages that it’s “outrageous” for groups such as the FFRF to “weaponize lawsuits” against mandatory Christian indoctrination in public schools. Watch the clip.
OK Schools Chief says he will allow prayers to be read over loudspeakers in schools, and when the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional they “weaponized the govt against christianity. When they pulled prayer in schools in 1962, what we’ve seen is moral decay.” pic.twitter.com/DNy8yDnUlF
Oh I hated that stupid argument. The flip side of that was “Well, I’m straight, and I can’t just marry anyone that I want, and neither should you.” I would say that even my 8 year old niece understand marriage better than you.
They actually believe this country was based on christian religion, when the opposite is true, our forefathers wanted religion out of government completely.
The majority of those that stay have no other choices. They aren’t the brightest kids, they have been isolated all of their lives, they likely haven’t been educated even to the most minimal of standards but they can recite the bible. The mean ones are the smart ones that are groomed for leadership. They are taught that they a superior in every way, yet when they look upon what their elders say is their legacy they see a failing business model and must choose between the message of their faith and death by fire for their enemies; which would be us.
It was this way back in Pilgrim days. Mandatory. They’d come fetch you against your will if you failed to show up for your weekly brainwashing session.
It’s not his money at risk and it’ll get him elected governor. (This what Greg Abbott has done in Texas to try and get himself elected prez someday, I’m convinced of it.)
“We’re going to continue to fight for religious liberty and religious freedom here in the state of Oklahoma,” said Walters.
The freedom to coerce non-believers? To single out and stigmatise anyone who doesn’t go along with his denomination’s interpretation of whatever? I wonder if he keeps it up, will we see a drastic lowering of the grades of any student who doesn’t participate?
The freedom to sabotage a kid’s entire future because they / their parents don’t follow your dogma?
And in today’s Washington Post, there is a hearing in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to decide whether parents may “opt-out” of lessons for their children if the lessons are in any way related to LBGT issues.
So you know where this is going — parents have the right to exempt their kids from anything about LBGT issues, but have no right to exempt them from christian religious training.
You want prayer? Go to church. School is for education, not indoctrination. Every American has the right to go to church and pray. Every child has the right to education without superstition.
Isn’t it amazing how “religious zealots” squall like a baby when their ability to force their religious ideas upon others gets challenged!!! Walters is a perfect poster boy for the riddance in government of religious rethuglicans.
You know, I stand behind people believing what they want in this nation, but what is wrong with these Christians who can’t keep it to themselves? Why do they have to keep pushing their beliefs onto everyone else? They’re exhausting. Do what you want at home but this is a free country, NOT a Christian nation.
“Bully”? It is actually bullying to force kids to bow to your God, especially when there are probably non-Christians among the student body who should never be forced to worship someone they don’t believe in.
On Monday, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and the House Oversight Committee released a new piece of “evidence” claiming that Hunter Biden was funneling money to his father, President Joe Biden, but a tiny bit more investigating proved it wasn’t much of a bombshell after all.
The new “evidence” was touted on the Oversight Committee’s social media and was accompanied by a video of Comer explaining that it proved President Biden was receiving “DIRECT monthly payments” from his son through his company Owasco. The evidence they presented were bank documents:
But upon closer examination, and after further investigation by journalists and intrepidTwitter/X users, the amount of the deposits from son to father that took place in 2018-2019 was only about $4,000 (to be specific, three payments of $1,380) that were repayment for money Hunter borrowed during a transitional financial patch for a Ford Raptor truck:
So, these three payments of $1,380 each (totaling $4,140) appear to be Hunter Biden paying his dad back for truck loan/lease payments that his dad paid on his son's behalf when Hunter was low on cash.
What this actually proves is that Hunter Biden made good on a loan from his father, and kept track of these repayments on an actual spreadsheet. That doesn’t really paint a picture of a corrupt financial scheme, but if you squint really hard and look through the picture instead of directly at it, then it might look sketchy enough to convinceWalmart shoppers.
Scottie's Playtime 