Florida: just two people accounted for 600 of the 1,100 book removal requests

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Book ban "zealots" were blasted by a Florida newspaper Monday for crippling the state's schools with crusades it said barely anybody supports.

The Tampa Bay Times editorial hit out after its own investigation showed just two people accounted for 600 of the 1,100 book removal requests made in the state since July 2022.

Those two have been “wasting untold hours of school employee time and the taxpayer dollars that pay for it," the editorial said.

It went on that the two “are part of a small group of Republican-backed scolds who are making Florida school officials afraid to do their job, which is to educate students, not placate zealots.”



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Bruce Friedman, a 57-year-old New York transplant who now lives in Clay County, is one of the two people behind the complaints. Vicki Baggett, a high school teacher in Escambia, Florida, is the other.

“We have probably spent more resources on (Friedman) than anyone else in the history of the school district,’’ said Roger Dailey, who serves as Clay County’s assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, according to the report.

The editorial notes that the “saddest aspect of all this” is that Florida parents already have an opt-out mechanism that allows them to exclude content for their children without impacting other students.

“That’s a much better way to empower parents than allowing a few zealots to decide what every student should read,” the newspaper writes.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/zealots-are-crippling-florida-s-schools-with-political-crusades-barely-anybody-supports-editorial/ar-AA1ges5m

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

1. Florida English teacher pushing book bans is openly racist and homophobic, students allege

Peggy Sunday, who graduated from Northview in 2021, told Popular Information that, during a 10th-grade English class, Baggett said she opposed interracial marriage. "[Baggett] said in the Bible somewhere it says that it is a sin for races to mix together and that whites are meant to be with whites and blacks are meant to be with blacks," Sunday alleged. About 15 students, from a variety of racial backgrounds, were enrolled in the class.

Another student in the same class, Stone Pressley, recalled the same incident. Pressley said that Baggett said she was opposed to "race mixing" because "she wanted to preserve cultures" and "didn't want everyone to turn the same color eventually." Pressley said that although Baggett had a reputation for controversial remarks, he found Baggett's comments on interracial relationships "shocking." After the incident, Pressley recalled asking his science teacher if it was possible, as Baggett claimed, for everyone to be "the same color one day."

Another student in the class, Hamza Jacobs, confirmed Baggett's comments opposing "race mixing." A fourth student in the class, who asked to remain anonymous due to the nature of the allegations and Baggett's standing in a small community, also confirmed the episode.

Sunday said that Baggett is known throughout Northview as an "openly racist teacher." Sunday worked at a local pool and, one day, Baggett asked her about "the black-to-white" ratio. According to Sunday, Baggett then asked two Black students if they "knew how to swim" because "most black people don't know how to swim." The incident was confirmed by one of the Black students targeted by Baggett, who asked to remain anonymous. That student said Baggett "asked me and another girl of color in my class 'could we swim because black people usually can’t.'" Jacobs and Pressley also confirmed the incident.

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The September 2019 parent letter also claims that Baggett "openly stated that men and women should 'Know Their Role.'" Baggett allegedly said that "men are the protectors and the women are the nurturers" and that is why "women have the children and the men go to work to provide and protect the women."

https://popular.info/p/florida-english-teacher-pushing-book

[BOSSHOG]

5. Totally fucking irrelevant "what it says in the Bible" in a public school

[Freethinker65]

2. So when does she run for office as a GOP candidate?

She certainly wouldn't have to worry about campaign donations.

[lpbk2713]

3. I'm glad they were identified.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

11. Vicki Baggett has long been identified. She don't care, just caught up in a bigotted power trip

[Baitball Blogger]

4. Can we sue them?

Obviously the process for removal is flawed.

[TeamProg]

6. Uuaargghh!

[Martin68]

7. This Tyranny of a Very Small Minority should not be allowed to stand.

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R

That teacher should be fired. Not going to happen it seems, but she should be.

[KentuckyWoman]

9. This has never been, is not now, and will never be about what is best for kids

It is not even about forcing everyone to live by their rules. It is more about "tasting liberal tears". These people are being annoying little shits because they can. For the fun of it. Bully gonna bully.

[Initech]

15. No it's about pleasing the Fox News MAGA Q Taliban.

Last edited Tue Sep 5, 2023, 11:29 AM - Edit history (1)

And our billionaire overlords. They want people just dumb enough to push buttons and not to think for themselves.

[KentuckyWoman]

16. Oh at a higher level I agree

But the individuals involved, I don't know, maybe they are thinking at that level but I really truly believe the individuals harassing school systems are just basic bullies doing what bullies do. Great tools for the politicians... but if it wasn't this, they'd be little shits about something else to someone else. My very humble opinion

[Initech]

17. Yup, they're definitely tools all right.

Here in California, we're dealing with this MAGA scumbag preacher Jack Hibbs, who got 3 of his people elected to the Chino Hills school board (which is really like 10 miles from where I live), and they're doing some untold damage to the school system. Really, fuck these clowns. And fuck the people that vote for them too.

[TheBlackAdder]

10. Could they be in trouble for incurring costs or other townships or counties where they don't reside?

[Warpy]

12. The mean [art of me wants these two picklefaced goons

locked up until they have both read all 600 books they have objected to.

My best guess says they haven't read a single one of them.

[Initech]

13. God these people suck.

[orangecrush]

14. +1