Despite the best efforts of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP lawmakers in the Legislature, some public school officials in Florida indicate they will continue to go woke, and work to indoctrinate children.
According to Breitbart News, Tom Edwards, vice chairman of the Sarasota County School Board, boasted of that situation with some measure of pride at a public meeting this week.
“I just wanted to give a little reassurance that here in the state of Florida, there are school board members that are woke. We’re here!” Edwards told attendees of a “Support Our Schools” forum.
“And we’re working. We have your back. You need to know we have your backs,” Edwards continued. “And we’re working in the best strategic spot because we’re on the inside. We are working from the inside.”
“But I’m not the only one in the state of Florida,” he added. “And I need to tell you so you feel a little better. There are coalitions forming to protect you.”
Support Our Schools is a liberal Sarasota-based group that believes, according to its website, “all children, regardless of socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or religion are entitled to a MODERN education in a safe and inclusive environment.”
A “modern” education, apparently, includes the kind of indoctrination that DeSantis and GOP lawmakers have sought to ban with the Parental Rights in Education law, which forbids school districts and classroom teachers from implementing lesson plans rooted in gender identity or sexual orientation in grades K-3, and Stop WOKE Act that prohibits teaching Critical Race Theory in K-12 schools.
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The forum in Sarasota promised to explain the state Education Department’s “new curriculum that clearly seeks to whitewash our history.”
Edwards told the group that he, and presumably other liberal school board members around the state, are “not accepting” it anymore, Breitbart noted.
Bridget Ziegler, a DeSantis ally on the Sarasota County School Board and wife of Republican Party of Florida Vice Chairman Christian Ziegler, told Breitbart in response that Edwards and his ilk claim to be the “moderate majority” in order to fool the public.
“Tom Edwards and radical liberal activists push a narrative blaming parents for the heated tone at School Board meetings, claim that indoctrination isn’t happening, and call frustrated parents who are fighting to protect their children ‘domestic terrorists.’” Ziegler said.
“Meanwhile he’s out there boasting about being woke, being strategic, and working on the ‘inside’ to form coalitions to advance his woke agenda.”
To battle that, DeSantis has in recent weeks been endorsing candidates, such as Ziegler, in county school board races around the state.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Free Press.
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