If you want to see what\u2019s happening to free speech and due process in the so-called \u201cFree State of Florida,\u201d look at the ruckus two Tampa-area legislators caused last week.<\/p>\n
Republican Reps. Danny Alvarez of Riverview and Michael Owen of Apollo Beach wrote to Florida\u2019s education commissioner <\/a>about \u201cdeeply troubling allegations\u201d surrounding a student walkout on Jan. 30 at Ruskin\u2019s Lennard High School. The pair alleged that Lennard principal Denise Savino \u201ccalled a faculty meeting\u201d to support a national day of protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, going so far as to instruct teachers not to stop students from leaving class and suggesting that students \u201ccould gather on the school football field.\u201d If proven true, the lawmakers wrote, the state should \u201cpermanently revoke\u201d Savino\u2019s teaching certificate.<\/p>\n The letter prompted Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas to fire off a directive<\/a> of his own later that day, warning school superintendents that \u201cany conduct\u201d by school personnel that diverts from instruction or undermines classroom authority \u201cwarrants disciplinary action.\u201d<\/p>\n The whole thing was overkill, which was probably the point. While all three officials deny their concerns were content-based, their letters tell a different story. They also took the occasion to rewrite the history of how Gov. Ron DeSantis has politicized the schools. The two lawmakers also threatened an educator\u2019s reputation and livelihood based on unsubstantiated claims.<\/p>\n Nobody should be surprised by the student protests. Public demonstrations have gathered steam nationwide since the Trump administration began its forceful crackdown on immigration last year. The public backlash reached a fever pitch after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens during operations in Minnesota in January. Students in Florida<\/a> and across the nation have joined in. I have no problem with Florida\u2019s education commissioner reminding school districts of their duty to manage student conduct and campus safety. But as is too common, Florida crossed a line.<\/p>\n In their letter, the lawmakers declare: \u201cPrincipal Savino appears to have violated the law.\u201d That\u2019s before any inquiry has taken place. The lawmakers also call for the state to investigate \u201cwhat appears to be a broader pattern of coordinated activist activity targeting Florida\u2019s public schools.\u201d Yet they muster only a couple of weak examples.<\/p>\n The legislators also asserted that \u201ca determined class of radical activists within our public education system continues to defy the law and the will of the people.\u201d Exactly who and what\u2019s going on went unexplained. The lawmakers also declare that \u201cthe people of Florida \u2014 through their elected representatives in Tallahassee \u2014 have passed comprehensive legislation to root out political activism and ideological indoctrination in our public schools.\u201d The record, they wrote, is clear: \u201cFlorida public schools are for education, not political activism.\u201d<\/p>\n Let\u2019s dissect these one at a time.<\/p>\n First, Floridians have not stood in lockstep with the Legislature as it wrung public schools through the culture wars. Students, parents and educators have opposed book bans, voters have rejected DeSantis-aligned candidates for school board and critics have pushed back at a range of the governor\u2019s initiatives, from the whitewashing of Black history to the conservative takeover of Florida\u2019s honors college. Pretending that Florida under DeSantis has removed politics from education is a joke. It\u2019s especially rich coming from Owen, who filed legislation this year to make Hillsborough\u2019s appointed school superintendent an elected position<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kamoutsas advanced the same talking points, posting on social media that Florida \u201cwill not tolerate educators encouraging school protests and pushing their political views onto students, especially ones that disparage law enforcement.\u201d So law enforcement now has higher free speech protection? So much for the state\u2019s response not being content-based.<\/p>\n Look, I don\u2019t know what happened at Lennard High; I wasn\u2019t there. I\u2019m told about 80 students took part (out of the 2,328 enrolled). They were shuffled to the football field for their safety before returning for seventh period.<\/p>\n What I do know is that Savino deserves the benefit of the doubt before politicians call for her head. Your average cluck isn\u2019t appointed principal of a high school, especially to one of the largest in Florida. There\u2019s also no cosmic barrier that keeps the outrage from across the country from being felt here. Managing students, too, can be tough; you can\u2019t merely manhandle them into classrooms. Let\u2019s also remember that protesters are directing their anger at the poor training and tactics of federal agents, not law enforcement more generally.<\/p>\n The rush to judgment, double standard and hypocrisy here are what Floridians should worry about, not a handful of kids on the football field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you want to see what\u2019s happening to free speech and due process in the so-called \u201cFree State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[53047,73127,113,28,30,29,11611,21853,73128,33194,73129,16572,412,73126,33994,73130,3384],"class_list":{"0":"post-151486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-danny-alvarez","9":"tag-denise-savino","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","15":"tag-legislators","16":"tag-lennard-high-school","17":"tag-michael-owen","18":"tag-principal-savino","19":"tag-public-schools","20":"tag-ron-desantis","21":"tag-school-superintendents","22":"tag-st-petersburg-high-school","23":"tag-student-protests","24":"tag-students"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}