Thread by @hal_pomeranz

Buckle up, friends. This is going to be a long thread.

Earlier this year, the state of Florida passed the ‘Parental Rights in Education Bill’, aka the ‘Don’t Say “Gay” Bill’. The bill bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for K-3.

1/?

As was doubtless intended by the bill’s proponents, the chilling effects of the bill extend well beyond 3rd grade. I have previously tweeted about a student at Winter Park High School who was disciplined for a school history report on the Stonewall Riots. metroweekly.com/2022/04/florid…

In response to the bill’s passage, students all over Florida walked out in protest on March 3. In response to the planned walkout, Seminole County Public Schools made a policy choice not to enforce disciplinary action against students walking out. 3/n

This was a school wide event and as such deserved to be documented in the school yearbook. My wife @JBeanDesign is the school yearbook advisor and our daughter is Coeditor In Chief. Here is the spread the yearbook staff produced. 4/?

@JBeanDesign The yearbooks went to press and arrived two weeks ago. On Friday 4/29, @JBeanDesign her students proudly delivered a copy to Mr Hunter, the school principal, so that he could share in their excitement.
5/?

@JBeanDesign By 5/3, however, Mr Hunter informed @JBeanDesign that there were “questions” regarding yearbook coverage of the event. Apparently allowing the students to walk out without disciplinary action violates county policy, and documenting the walkout draws attention to this lapse. 6/?

@JBeanDesign Long story short, the SCPS administration are purchasing “crack and peel” white-out stickers to cover the offending material. These are not your average Office Depot stickers and, once applied, cannot be removed without damaging the books.
7/?

@JBeanDesign Let me unpack all of the reasons why the official statement about this action are disingenuous. First, there was no “review process”. While admin had ample opportunity to review content throughout the year, they did not do so. 8/?

@JBeanDesign Second, while this may not have been a “school sanctioned” event, the admin was clearly aware that the event was happening and explicitly told the faculty to facilitate the walk-out. Teachers and staff monitored the event as it was happening. 9/?

@JBeanDesign Third, other school yearbooks in the county documented the walk-out and have been told that their coverage is fine and will not be censored. Here is the coverage from Oviedo and Hagerty High Schools. 10/?

@JBeanDesign What is conspicuously different about the Lyman High School coverage is that the Lyman spread shows students waving Pride flags. All the books document the violations of policy that are supposedly getting Lyman censored, but the censorship is only being applied to one book. 11/?

@JBeanDesign At this point, @JBeanDesign and her yearbook staff have informed Mr Hunter that they will not be a party to censoring and defacing their yearbooks. The sheer logistics of unboxing and applying multiple stickers to 600 yearbooks seems to have escaped the notice of SCPS admin. 12/?

@JBeanDesign Furthermore, the books were pre-purchased by parents of Lyman High School students and do not belong to SCPS. There is a lawsuit waiting to happen if SCPS begins defacing other people’s property. 13/?

@JBeanDesign At this point, the original content is already going viral and all SCPS admin is doing at this point are just drawing attention to the situation. Had the yearbooks simply gone out quietly and without comment, none of this blowback would have happened. 14/?

@JBeanDesign But now SCPS is further silencing a community protest regarding a bill that was aimed at silencing that community. And the fact that the censorship is being applied unevenly is even more problematic. 15/?

@JBeanDesign As a parent, as a husband, and as a human being, I protest the actions being taken by SCPS to cover up their mistakes and to silence the LGBTQ+ community. I am protest the ‘Don’t Say “Gay” Bill’ and other similarly racist, homophobic laws being enacted by the GOP minority. 16/?

@JBeanDesign The amount of time/effort this has already cost SCPS is astonishing. And the costs are sure to rise as the county must now contend with the fallout of its actions. This is money better spent on education than censorship. 17/?

@JBeanDesign Unfortunately, with @GovRonDeSantis polishing his conservative resume for an inevitable Presidential run, it seems like censorship is the central focus of Florida schooling washingtonpost.com/education/2022… universitybusiness.com/woke-up-call-u…
18/?

@JBeanDesign @GovRonDeSantis There is nobody coming to save your rights. If free speech matters, if social justice matters, if our children’s future matters, we must fight this battle again and again. We must bring out the vote and not allow an arch conservative minority to enforce their bigoted agenda. 19/?

@JBeanDesign @GovRonDeSantis Take my words to heart. Take this story to heart. Get political, get active. Vote these people out of office. /fin