THREAD: There was backlash to the backlash at a heated school board hearing in Florida’s deep-red Hernando County on Tuesday.
You should see what teachers, students, and parents said about right-wing culture wars and anti-LGBTQ policies that are driving some educators to quit.
“I have never seen such fear from my colleagues as I’ve seen in the last two months.”
— Social studies teacher Victoria Hunt says “the culture that has been created” in Hernando County, Florida, is driving teachers to leave “the county, the state, or the profession altogether.”
Parent at the Hernando County, Florida, school board hearing Tuesday: “I’m appalled by how many gay people are here.”
*Crowd cheers*
“How are we supposed to get an unbiased education when the teachers are walking on eggshells? ... I am so scared for the future if our teachers, our mentors, are being silenced.”
— Student condemns right-wing attacks on teachers at Hernando County, Florida, school board hearing
A student slams the Hernando County, Florida, school board for anti-LGBTQ attacks:
“You ... have alienated and made us feel as if our entire existence is an issue to you. My existence should not be an issue to you. But come next election season, my vote will be.”
“These clearly anti-queer laws and legislation surrounding the school board … leads to kids like me killing themselves … I’m not up here to turn your kids transgender, I’m not contagious. I’m up here to tell the school board to do better.”
— Student in Hernando County, Florida
“If keeping children innocent is the goal, I suggest that this board remove the Bible from the board’s approved materials list because it’s loaded with stories of cruelty and violence, rape, murder …”
— Sandy Roth, a child advocate volunteer in Hernando County, Florida
The heated Hernando County school board hearing came as nearly 50 teachers in the school district are reportedly planning to resign, protesting right-wing attacks they’re facing in the wake of Florida passing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) “Don’t Say Gay” law. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
“The injustice is that we continue to invest in a system and a culture of militarization and policing, again, entrenched in injustice and oppression.”
— An opponent of “Cop City,” Atlanta’s police training center, condemns the controversial project at a City Council meeting
Jimmy Hill, whose son Jimmy Atchison was killed by Atlanta police in 2019, returns a proclamation the City Council gave him because it describes his family’s fight as “anti-gun violence” instead of anti-police brutality:
“Stop trying to sugarcoat it. It’s police brutality.”
“These people should not have been killed — these young men — because it's wrong ... No one is caring. And I'm here to ask, are you all gonna care?”
— An opponent of “Cop City” holds up at a City Council hearing a poster of young men killed by police
"America is the least racist country in the world."
After President Joe Biden called white supremacy "the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland" at Howard University, Fox & Friends hosts go in on Biden's "pandering," how it was "cynical" and "actually evil."
"What the left wants to do to restart race challenges in our country ... They want us to not get along, when our default right now as Americans is to want to love each other, want to work together, want to be together."
— Fox & Friends' Pete Hegseth
Good Sunday morning. Do you believe "America is the least racist country in the world?"
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is in custody and faces charges of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and more in a 13-count indictment.
Santos will see a judge later today.
Former U.S. Attorney @eliehonig breaks down the 13-count indictment against Rep. George Santos (R-NY):
"Most of these charges are going to carry 20-year maximums. Now, we have to be careful whenever we talk about these maximums ... it's very rare that anyone gets the maximum."
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is not yet calling for Santos' resignation:
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) following the mass killing of 8 people at an outlet mall in Texas:
"I'll be going up to Allen later today to begin the process of providing hope and healing. But I gotta tell you there are questions that are lingering that the families want answers to."
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), on proposals to reduce gun violence following the mass killing of 8 people in Allen, Texas:
"One thing that we can observe very easily and that has there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that's taking place in America."
"We gotta find a way in this country where we can once again reunite Americans as Americans and come together as one big family."
— Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) following the mass killing of 8 people in Allen, Texas.
"The first girl I walked up to was crouched down covering her head in the bushes, so I felt for a pulse, pulled her head to the side, and she had no face."
— Heartbreaking firsthand account from Steven Spainhouer, first on the scene at the Allen Premium Outlets mass shooting
More Spainhouer: "I asked him if he was OK and he said, 'My mom is hurt, my mom is hurt.' So rather than traumatize him, I pulled him around the corner sat him down and he was covered from head to toe ... like somebody poured blood on him."
"Authorities responded to the Allen Premium Outlets to investigate a shooting Saturday afternoon that killed eight victims and sent others to hospitals, with a victim as young as 5 years old." fox4news.com/news/allen-pre…