From White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre:
Today, some of Florida’s most vulnerable students and families are more fearful and less free. As the state’s shameful “Don’t Say Gay” law takes effect, state officials who claim to champion liberty are limiting the freedom of their fellow Americans simply to be themselves.
Already, there have been reports that “Safe Space” stickers are being taken down from classrooms. Teachers are being instructed not to wear rainbow clothing. LGBTQI+ teachers are being told to take down family photos of their husbands and wives—cherished family photos like the ones on my own desk.
This is not an issue of “parents’ rights.” This is discrimination, plain and simple. It’s part of a disturbing and dangerous nationwide trend of right-wing politicians cynically targeting LGBTQI+ students, educators, and individuals to score political points.
It encourages bullying and threatens students’ mental health, physical safety, and well-being. It censors dedicated teachers and educators who want to do the right thing and support their students. And it must stop.
President Biden has been very clear that every student deserves to feel safe and welcome in the classroom.
The Department of Education will be monitoring this law, and any student or parent who believes they are experiencing discrimination is encouraged to file a complaint with the Department’s Office for Civil Rights.
Our Administration will continue to fight for dignity and opportunity for every student and family—in Florida and around the country.
Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law takes effect today – the latest attempt by Republicans in state houses to target LGBTQI+ students, teachers, and families.
Legislators shouldn’t be in the business of censoring educators, and @usedgov will do all in its power to protect students.
Maybe DeathSAntis should focus on TRUTHFUL education!!!!
1) Being GLBTQ is NOT a CHOICE!!!
2) Educating children with the TRUTH about Slavery, the Holocaust, Fascism, and other Historical EVILS, may be “upsetting” but IS NECESSARY to KNOW!!!!
Is this the theocratic state of Florida? Forcing teachers to lie about religion and the fact history pushed by religious fanatics? Why is DeathSantis doing this? He did not seem this religious before but I guess it fits his thug personality these days. Hugs
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a new civics education program on Thursday. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — New civics training for Florida public school teachers comes with a dose of Christian dogma, some teachers say, and they worry that it also sanitizes history and promotes inaccuracies.
Included in the training is the statement that it is a “misconception” that “the Founders desired strict separation of church and state.”
Other materials included fragments of statements that were “cherry-picked” to present a more conservative view of American history, some attendees said. In a possible effort to inoculate some Founding Fathers against contemporary political complaints, some slides in a presentation pointed out that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson repudiated slavery; unsaid is that both men held enslaved people and helped worked toward a Constitution that enshrined the practice.
“My takeaway from the training is that civics education in the state of Florida right now is geared toward pushing some particular points of view,” said Broward County teacher Richard Judd, who attended the three-day training. “The thesis they ran with is that there is no real separation of church and state.”
The First Amendment prevents the government from “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” which scholars widely interpret to require a separation of church and state.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has made civics teaching a cornerstone of his education policy, and he says he’s fighting back against “woke indoctrination” of students by teachers from kindergarten to colleges.
“We’re unabashedly promoting civics and history that is accurate and that is not trying to push an ideological agenda,” DeSantis said at an event this week.
In Florida, he said, students are “learning the real history, you’re learning the real facts.” DeSantis has signed into law new civics curriculum standards, introduced last year for middle-schoolers, which met with little opposition from teachers, who say they are comprehensive and apolitical.
But the “civics bootcamps” DeSantis launched this summer to instruct teachers on how to implement the curriculum have alarmed many in public schools. Judd said the trainers told teachers, “This is the way you should think.”
“One of the insulting assumptions was that we’re all these woke indoctrinators, and so they were presenting a remedy for that,” Judd said.
The training sessions began last month and will continue through July for teachers who volunteer to take them. While not mandated by the state, they come with a $700 stipend for three-day sessions, with a chance to earn a $3,000 bonus anda “Civics Seal of Endorsement.”
Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union, said she’s glad the state isn’t mandating the training, but that many teachers are signing up to get the stipends. She said union members who attended the training sessions said they were being told to present to students “only one side of history.”
“It was basically, it’s this way or no way, like there’s only one side to American history,” Fusco said. “Then they kind of slipped in a Christian values piece, ignoring the fact that this country is made up of so many different cultures and religions.”
Central Florida Civics teacher Abe Lopez supports DeSantis’s emphasis on civics and the way the governor believes the subject should be taught. DeSantis invited Lopez to speak at his June 30 event announcing improved civics assessment scores among middle-schoolers. Lopez, who was a member of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s staff, said he was surprised during his first year of teaching last year that his seventh graders knew so little about civics.
“I used this opportunity as a blank slate to help my students understand that their rights are intrinsic and do not come from a man, they do not come from a government. Our rights come from a creator,” Lopez said in his speech. “And once you acknowledge that your rights come from a creator, they can’t be taken away by a man or a government.”
In an interview, Lopez, who was a national committeeman for the Republican National Hispanic Assembly and who in 2020 posted information on Twitter for “Stop the Biden Steal” rallies in Florida, said he keeps politics out of his classroom.
“We need excellence in civics education, and I think Governor DeSantis’s program is a model for the nation,” Lopez said.
My husband went to Michigan State in the mid 60’s. He said a lot of freshman had remedial classes in many subjects they didn’t have in their high schools.
Please notice that the board goes above the requirements of the law and that the maga rabid right is wanting them to go even farther. They are equating LGBTQ+ students with sexual predators and also as one person said the straight kids are pushing heteerosuality in their dess and actions. The idea that teachers can not use the students prefered pronouns even if the parents want them to show just how much bigotry and attempt to erase the LGBTQ+ in Florida school has become. LGBTQ+ kids are in schools and these laws are making them hide, making them targets, making the religious doctrines have more rights and authority than these kids do. How this is legal I have no idea, but we live in a religious theocracy these days. The Christian Taliban has taken over Florida, they are a minority but they seem to have all the power in the state. Hugs
After three hours of fiery public debate, the Leon County School Board unanimously approved its “LGBTQ Inclusive School Guide” Tuesday night.
The policy, which the board is calling a “guide” and a “living document” that can be quickly updated, comes after weeks of deliberation from the district’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee.
The document is intended to create guidelines for teachers and administrators to help students who need it and to outline state laws for employees, Assistant Superintendent Alan Cox told the Tallahassee Democrat.
Most of the 60 or so public speakers leveled harsh criticism of the guide and effort, with some saying it could harm LGBTQ students and others saying it didn’t go far enough to protect parental rights.
“Normally when we have something on the agenda, we have a group that’s for, and a group that’s against,” board Vice Chair Alva Striplin said. “Well, tonight we had everyone against.”
Parental notification draws fire
What drew the most debate was a provision that a school will notify parents — by form — if a student who is “open about their gender identity” is in a physical education class or on an overnight trip.
Some teachers and students during the Tuesday night meeting said the policy will “out” LGBTQ+ students — revealing their sexual orientation or gender identity without their permission.
The policy language does explicitly say a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or expression “should not be shared with others without their input and permission.”
“The notification to all the parents can create a very stressful and unwanted situation to trans and LGBTQ students,” said Kailey Sandell, a Leon High School student who spoke at the meeting. “A lot of times kids assume that kids are gay or trans; they will easily be able to hurt them.”
In the backdrop of the debate over LGBTQ rights is the Parental Rights in Education bill, HB 1557, passed earlier this year, which states that parents must be notified if there is a change in their child’s “mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.”
The meeting lasted more than four hours and multiple speakers cited the Bible in their comments. Some parents said discussions about sexual orientation have no place in schools and that the guide was overstepping the role of education officials.
Other parents who spoke at the meeting argued if they are not notified in such circumstances, it’s a violation of their parental rights.
“Any attempt to withhold information from a parent or try to influence a child in a knowing way is against Florida law,” said Sharyn Kerwin, head of the Leon County chapter of Moms for Liberty and a member of the committee the advisory committee.
The Moms for Liberty group, based in Brevard County, rose to power during the mask mandate debates. The conservative organization aims to make a big mark on the 2022 elections and position itself as a juggernaut on education issues with the clout to reshape school policies in Tallahassee and throughout the nation.
Critics of the notification policy say the district’s language is equating “gender identity” with LGBTQ sexuality. They note that even someone who is “straight” expresses themselves via their clothing choices or appearance and can be “open about their gender identity.”
“Sending out a parent notification could be seen as placing a target on a student’s back,” said Lauren Kelly-Manders, a Tallahassee resident.
Kelly-Manders, 34, is a staunch LGBTQ advocate and “came out” when she was 14 at Leon High School. She also sits on the city’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Council.
“I have concerns and trouble envisioning that type of notice in practice,” she said.
Benjamin Burn, another LCS student who spoke at the meeting, said, rather, making restrooms in schools gender-neutral would help, especially with bullying situations.
“Trans kids want privacy,” Benjamin said. “That’s what I want, that’s what everyone wants. And trans kids honestly deserve it.”
Board members at odds but find common ground
Board Chair Darryl Jones said initially that he was against the guide and favored delaying a vote.
“One of the things I don’t want this guide to do is, for lack of a better description, weaponize bigotry,” Jones said.
Vice Chair Alva Striplin took the opposing view.
“I feel like parents are not protected enough in this,” she said. “But I’m trying to meet in the middle and give our teachers something.”
Ultimately, the board and superintendent concluded that teachers desperately needed a guide soon and agreed to move forward.
Board member Joy Bowen, the longest-serving member of the board, attended the meeting via Zoom as she tested positive for COVID-19. Board member Rosanne Wood, previously a principal of SAIL High School, said the policy would help create direction for teachers and schools.
“I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about this and we are trying to help our teachers and our administrators know what to do with students who need our help,” Wood said.
The board voted to approve the guide unanimously 4-0. It will revisit the guide in six months to adjust it if needed.
Casey Chapter is a reporter for the Florida Student News Watch and a Tallahassee Democrat contributor. Follow her on Twitter @CaseyChapter.
I imagine there will be a new business model popping up in floriduh: camps designed to fix the broken kids. That was the implied threat used by the madrasa that I was forced to attend. Man up or you’re family will have to send you away.
Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life except as otherwise provided herein. This section shall not be construed to limit the public’s right of access to public records and meetings as provided by law. That’s from the Florida Constitution and I believe this amendment will throw a spanner into a lot of the fascist culture war in this state.
I pretty much brought myself up. I was not groomed either way. I didn’t even kiss anyone until I was 18. There were no books, movies or anything to help me understand that I was gay. I just knew that I was different. Gym class was hell for me. I just kept to myself. This was in the 50s and 60s when it was illegal to be homosexual. As if that would stop us.
And when one of the bullied kids strikes back by beating up the bully the bullies parents will be “oh! Just look at how vicious those transgender/lgbtq+ kids are!” They’re ALWAYS pulling that bullshit.
If you are a teacher with a conscience in FL, I urge you to quit. I’m sorry for the kids but there will be nothing you can do to help them. Time for a brain drain from red to blue states.
Who will organize this support and protect teachers from the trumpanzee cultists? They will be subject to the same treatment poll workers in GA received: death threats, people stalking them and camping outside their homes.
If you are a teacher working for low pay (FL) and now you will be attacked by the cult, then you will probably make the decision to leave. The election worker in GA, Shaye Mos, recounted how a mob went to her grandmother’s house and intimidated her grandmother. Some may be able to deal with the cult but when they threaten your family, that’s usually the breaking point. We know the cult will do this.
This is a no win situation here for the students and the teachers. I expect that over the next couple of years we will start to see a population shift in the country. If I were in a red state right now I could be planning on getting the fuck out of there to a blue state. It I had a gay or transgender kid, I would for sure be moving to a blue state. To be sure, blue states are not all rainbows and lollipops but they beat the fuck out of any of the red states now! Blue states need teachers and we should be promoting them moving and providing assistance and good pay for those here and those wanting to come here.
After three hours of fiery public debate, the Leon County School Board unanimously approved its “Jewish Inclusive School Guide” Tuesday night. What drew the most debate was a provision that a school will notify parents — by form — if a student who is “open about their Jewish identity”
This from the party of limited government and freedom. Soon they’re be giving evangelical children special outfits to wear for when the roam the halls looking for “undesirables” to beat up.
A group of Texas educators is proposing that the term “slavery” be redefined to mean “involuntary relocation” to the Texas Board of Education. Cenk Uygur, Jayar Jackson, and Caroline Johnson discuss on The Young Turks. Watch LIVE weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live
“Public schools in Texas would describe slavery to second graders as “involuntary relocation” under new social studies standards proposed to the state’s education board.
A group of nine educators submitted the idea to the State Board of Education as part of Texas’ efforts to develop new social studies curriculum, according to the Texas Tribune. The once-a-decade process updates what children learn in the state’s nearly 8,900 public schools.
The board is considering curriculum changes one year after Texas passed a law to eliminate topics from schools that make students “feel discomfort.” Board member Aicha Davis, a Democrat who represents Dallas and Fort Worth, raised concerns during a June 15 meeting that the term wasn’t a fair representation of the slave trade.
The board sent the draft back for revision, urging the educator group to “carefully examine the language used to describe events.” “I can’t say what their intention was, but that’s not going to be acceptable,” Davis told The Texas Tribune on Thursday.” *
In Orange County, Florida, the school district has pushed restrictions on LGBT teachers, preventing them from displaying pictures of their spouses, wearing rainbow articles of clothing, or discussing their lifestyle with students. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks.
“WOW: Gay teachers in Orange County, Florida must remove all photos of their spouses from their classrooms following the passage of the Don’t Say Gay law. All rainbow items of clothing or other memorabilia are banned.”
Notice that the reason stated for this change is a law passed by the Republicans that nothing can be taught that would upset white kids. Also they wanted to compare slavery with the immigration of Irish people. Hugs
The Texas State Board of Education, which is considering social studies curriculum revisions this summer, says the group has been asked to revise that phrasing.
A group of Texas educators have proposed to the Texas State Board of Education that slavery should be taught as “involuntary relocation” during second grade social studies instruction but board members have asked them to reconsider the phrasing, according to the state board’s chairman.
“The board — with unanimous consent — directed the work group to revisit that specific language,” Keven Ellis, chair of the Texas State Board of Education said in a statement issued late Thursday.
The working group of nine educators, including a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, is one of many such groups advising the state education board to make curriculum changes. This summer, the board will consider updates to social studies instruction a year after lawmakers passed a law to keep topics that make students “feel discomfort” out of Texas classrooms. The board will have a final vote on the curriculum in November.
The suggested change surfaced late during its June 15 meeting that lasted more than 12 hours. Board member Aicha Davis, a Democrat who represents Dallas and Fort Worth, brought up concerns to the board saying that it wasn’t a “fair representation” of the slave trade. The board, upon reading the language in the suggested curriculum, sent the working draft back for revision. “For K-2, carefully examine the language used to describe events, specifically the term “involuntary relocation.”
“I can’t say what their intention was, but that’s not going to be acceptable,” Davis told The Texas Tribune on Thursday.
This group proposing second grade curriculum revisions was given a copy of Senate Bill 3, Texas’ law that dictates how slavery and race is taught in Texas. In it, the law states that slavery can’t be taught as a true founding of the United States and that slavery was nothing more than a deviation from American values.
“They were given Senate Bill 3 so that had to have influenced their mind with that being a document given to them right before they had to perform this review,” she said.
Ellis’ statement pointed out that slavery is currently not included in social studies instruction to second graders.
“The topic of slavery is not currently addressed in the 2nd Grade curriculum; this work is meant to address that deficiency,” he said.
Stephanie Alvarez, a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and a member of the group, said she was did not attend the meetings when the language was crafted because of personal issues, but that the language was “extremely disturbing.” She would not comment any further because of her role in the work group, she said.
Part of the proposed social studies curriculum standards outline that students should “compare journeys to America, including voluntary Irish immigration and involuntary relocation of African people during colonial times.”
Annette Gordon-Reed, a history professor at Harvard University, said using “involuntary relocation” to describe the slavery threatens to blur out what actually occurred during that time in history. There is no excuse to use this language.
“Young kids can grasp the concept of slavery and being kidnapped into it,” Gordon-Reed said. “The African slave trade is unlike anything that had or has happened, the numbers and distance.”
If language like this is accepted and taught to children, it means the country is moving in the wrong direction, she said.
“Tell children the truth. They can handle it,” she said.
Texas is in the middle of developing a new curriculum for social studies, a process that happens about every decade to update what children should be learning in Texas’ 8,866 public schools.
This process comes as the state’s public education system has become heavily politicized, from lawmakers passing legislation on how race and slavery should be taught in schools to conservative political action committees pouring large amounts of money to put more conservatives on school boards who promise to get rid of curriculum and programs they consider divisive and make white children feel bad.
Last year’s SB 3 was designed to keep critical race theory, a university-level theory out of secondary schools even though the bill never mentions it. Critical race theory is the idea that racism is embedded in legal systems and not limited to individuals. It has become a common phrase used by conservatives to include anything about race taught or discussed in public secondary schools.
The work group that proposed this language change is one of several groups presenting their drafts to the state education board, which has the final say on whether to accept or reject them.
“I don’t like it because it’s a personal belief. I don’t like it because it’s not rooted in truth,” she said. “We can have all the discussions we want, but we have to adopt the truth for our students.”
A group of Texas educators proposed to the State Board of Education that slavery should be replaced with “involuntary relocation” in the second grade social studies curriculum.
It’s obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention that today’s Republican Party is one of the most virulently anti-Semitic elements in American society today.
Their support of Israel has nothing — zero — to do with love or respect for the Jewish people. It’s merely the party following the guidance of their christofascist puppet masters, the evangelical right.
“Israel must remain strong and vital in anticipation of the Second Coming, there, of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who — in keeping with biblical truth — will then smite all non-believers, including the Jews.”
So as you read the story of how thugs enter a library and say they will prevent a event of reading to children and despite a 45 minute stand off with library staff asking them to leave, library security telling them to leave and the police coming and arguing with them, they get their way. Scared parents took their kids and left so the event was canceled. This is the brown shirts of the Republican party, scaring and threatening people to get their way and the police allowing it. This is stunning, it was a legal event supported by the patrons of the library and a gang of thugs was allowed to just stop it because they did not like it based on the rabid rantings of the Republicans in office and their rabid right followers. The accusations have no basis in fact, it is completely wrong. Yet this is the new fascist theocracy USA. Hugs
Minutes before a scheduled “Rainbow Storytime” program, about a half a dozen men walked into a reading room at the Tutt Branch of the St. Joseph County Public Library and demanded the event be shut down.
The men mostly wore black shirts and hats with yellow trim. At one point during the confrontation, one member unfurled a flag reading “Michiana Proud Boys,” appearing to identify the men as a local chapter of the white nationalist hate group.
In a video, the men badgered library staff and event attendees for around 45 minutes, calling the books that were to be read a “perversion” and belligerently asking “what gives you the right” to push sexuality on children.
Eventually the men left after being talked to by South Bend police officers and the library’s security personnel, though the reading event was postponed after most of the families went home.
“It is a shock and we are very disappointed an event celebrating LGBTQ+ communities was disrupted,” said Marissa Gebhard, communications manager for the library system. “Our staff are very affected by it.”
Gebhard added that the library will reschedule the event, which was planned in partnership with the Tree House Gender Resource Center, and will continue to offer programming “to all members of our community.”
“The library will always be a welcoming place for everyone of all viewpoints, so the library will continue to offer programs like this no matter what the response is,” Gebhard said.
She added that the books that were to be read were “carefully selected” and meant to promote gender inclusivity in an age-appropriate manner.
Though Monday’s standoff ended without violence, similar confrontations have played out in libraries and schools across the county in recent months as members of the Proud Boys have disrupted LGBTQ-themed events.
The Proud Boys has been designated as a hate group by multiple advocacy groups, and often engages in violence to further its white extremist agenda, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Local activist Tonna Robinson, who works with the Indiana Mutual Aid Coalition and Black Lives Matter South Bend, said the local Proud Boys chapter has not been active to her knowledge, but said the group’s attempt to target an LGBTQ-themed event at the library is part of the group’s national goal.
“This is an organized effort to disrupt and target LGBTQ people nationwide,” Robinson said.
Robinson pointed out altercations at libraries in San Fransisco, Wilmington, N.C, and Dallas in the last month, as well as an incident in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho where nearly three dozen members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front were arrested for planning a riot at a pride parade.
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors charged former Proud Boys national chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and four other group leaders with seditious conspiracy in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Locally, Gebhard couldn’t remember any other instances of library events being disrupted by white supremacist or any other groups.
Rainbow Storytime
A video posted by the Proud Boys appeared to depict the incident and begins by showing six men and their videographer walk into the library and stand in the middle of a room where staff were preparing for the Rainbow Storytime event. The event was set for 5 p.m. on Monday.
The men then accost a librarian setting up a whiteboard with questions about why she’s indoctrinating children with “sexuality.”
“You’re grooming these children’s minds,” one of the Proud Boys said. “This is our region and we will not have that in our region.”
A library patron then enters and begins debating with the group before a manager asks the group to leave. The group doesn’t and other staff and patrons come talk to and argue with the group for 20 to 30 minutes. One woman enters, identifies herself as a mother and also criticizes the event. Eventually, South Bend police officers show up and tell the group they can’t interfere the event.
Proud Boys members repeatedly deny disrupting the event, while also repeating the contradictory statement that they will not permit the event to take place.
At one point near the end of the video, an unidentified South Bend police officer tells the group they can remain at the library only if they quietly observe the event and not disrupt it. The members reiterate their intention to prevent the event, and the officer says, “You know the program is going to go on, right?” Less than a minute after police tell them they cannot stop the event, the video abruptly ends.
Rona Plummer, the St. Joseph Public Library’s director of branch services, arrived at the Tutt branch around 5:15 p.m. to a scene full of confusion as the Proud Boys confronted library staff, curious patrons and police. Plummer said library staff were concerned for their safety during the incident.
“The Proud Boys vocalized that the program was not going to happen, period. That’s where our concern was,” Plummer said. “It was very disruptive and it changed what was supposed to be a pleasant, positive experience into a confusing and negative experience.”
Gebhard and Plummer said they didn’t see any violence and don’t believe members of the Proud Boys were carrying weapons.
South Bend Police Department logs list the incident as a miscellaneous public report and show no arrests were made. A representative with the department did not respond to a message from The Tribune seeking more information about the incident.
Gebhard said the library has two security officers stationed at library’s main branch in downtown South Bend, as well as a few other officers at different branches. After Monday, library leadership is considering changes to security, Gebhard said, but nothing has been finalized.
— Indiana Mutual Aid Coalition (@INMutualAid) June 28, 2022
The Proud Boys recognized one person because Purple for Parents (a local hate group focused on schools) had doxxed her before.
This disruption is extremely concerning because it seems to be a part of coordinated disruptions of similar events across the country. 2/4 pic.twitter.com/QumqYn4Bxd
— Indiana Mutual Aid Coalition (@INMutualAid) June 28, 2022
In a video on their public Telegram channel the Proud Boys posted a video of themselves flashing white power hand signs during the disruption.
Hate like this cannot be tolerated, it is dangerous. At another disruption in Nevada a gun was pulled. 3/4 pic.twitter.com/L3HEBoffA8
— Indiana Mutual Aid Coalition (@INMutualAid) June 28, 2022
Far-right attacks on LGBTQ+ events are spiking around the country. In response, communities in North Texas are organizing for self-defense.
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Scottie's Playtime 