Florida teacher defends showing Disney movie: 'I'm just being accepting'

[Jilly_in_VA]

A Florida teacher under investigation because she showed her class the Disney animated movie Strange World which features a gay character has defended herself on social media, insisting the film related to the curriculum and warning that state investigators were traumatizing her 10- and 11-year-old students.

Jenna Barbee, a teacher at Winding Waters school in Hernando county, Florida, released a six-minute TikTok video in which she gave her side of the story. She said she had been reported to the local school board by one of her students’ mother, who sits on the board and was on a “rampage to get rid of every form of representation out of our schools”, Barbee alleged.

Barbee, who is in her first year as a teacher, said she was reported to Florida’s state education department for “indoctrination” before anyone had even spoken to her. She is now under official investigation for possible violations of the Parental Rights in Education Act, dubbed the “don’t say gay” law, which was introduced by Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis last year and which bans teaching about gender and sexual identity to school students at all ages.

In her TikTok statement, Barbee said she had decided to show Strange World to her fifth grade class to give them a break after a morning of exams. She saw the film as directly relevant to the curriculum they were studying on earth science and ecosystems.

She had signed permission slips from the parents of all pupils in the class, giving their approval for showing PG movies.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/14/florida-teacher-disney-film-strange-world

The fact that there is a gay character is incidental, not central to the plot, which is directly relevant to the curriculum. Fuck off, Moms for Liberty. Oh, and why don't gay and ally parents have "parental rights" in the classroom? Hmmmmm?

[reymega life]

1. FLORIDA IS TOAST

[RKP5637]

4. My general attitude toward Florida is now Fuck Florida, it is beyond redemption.

Never stepping foot in that hellhole again, and I'm sure they could care less what I do.

[Tommy Carcetti]

11. Ok then.

Bye?

[RKP5637]

12. Yep, bye bye. n/t

[Tommy Carcetti]

13. Guess we'll never see you.

Meh.

[RKP5637]

14. Thanks for having asked! It's just too much for me now.

[edisdead]

22. why so antagonistic?

[Tommy Carcetti]

24. When someone declares "Fuck Florida, it's beyond redemption"...

...I tend to take it personally.

I love my state.

I make zero excuses for its shithead political leaders.

But I love my state. So don't cross me on that.

[orthoclad]

7. We have to stop ceding ground

Florida was purple just a few years ago. I think the current regime is only in power through voter suppression and intimidation. If we keep ceding ground, they will win. Everywhere.

We should have voter registration drives and Federal voter protection laws.

Freedom riders?

[Mariana]

26. Florida is going to be red for the foreseeable future

and nothing we do is going to change that. Thousands upon thousands of Republican voting retired Boomers are flocking there every year from all over the country, with no end in sight. Places like The Villages are growing like weeds all over the state. They love De Santis and everyone like him.

[radical noodle]

28. The Villages should not be put in a Republican box

They get a lot of attention and while the majority may be Republicans, it's not as dead to Democrats as one might think. No doubt you're right about Florida being red in the foreseeable future, but gerrymandering has a lot to do with that too.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/2/4/2078558/-What-it-is-really-like-being-a-Democrat-in-The-Villages-FL-And-why-Democrats-should-move-here

From the article:

I participate in nationwide Facebook groups with a decided Democrat lean and what I read over and over again is that people are crossing Florida off their retirement lists or more specifically The Villages. A few people ask for names of retirement communities in blue sections of Florida.

You should move to The Villages. Let me tell you why:

1. We have the largest Democratic Club in the entire State of Florida (by A LOT) and that is where you will make your friends. We have 1,200 – 1,500 paid members each year and about another 1,000 regulars who haven’t joined but pop in for a particular speaker or topic or event. You can easily golf with only Democrats, enjoy restaurants with only Democrats, play games with only Democrats, dance with only Democrats and virtually anything else you enjoy, with only Democrats.

2. We are activists. In 2016 we turned out about 72% of the Democratic vote, in 2018 we turned out just under 78% of the Democratic vote and in 2020 we turned out just over 86% of the Democratic vote. Is that enough to make a difference in local elections? No, not without your help. But we add thousands and thousands of votes to the state-wide total for Democrats and to be certain that we remove DeSantis from office, we need you to move here and vote as well

We have hosted some pretty impressive people over the years through the Democratic Club, including Caroline Kennedy, Steny Hoyer, Pam Keith, Andrew Gillum (who enjoyed us so much he frequently would mention us on CNN and MSNBC), Charlie Crist, Nikki Fried, David Jolly, Gwen Graham, Val Demings and more. We explore issues, meet candidates, and host other activists. Joe Biden even stopped here for ice cream in 2008!

BTW, I don't live in The Villages but I live near there. There are plenty of things wrong with The Villages, but their Democrats are strong.

[Mariana]

29. Their Democrats are vastly outnumbered by their Republicans.

Sumter County, 2022 - De Santis 73.2%, Crist 26.5%
Lake County, 2022 - De Santis 66.5%, Crist 32.8%
Marion County, 2022 - De Santis 69.2%, Crist 30.2%

Sumter County, 2020 - Trump 67.9%, Biden 31.7%
Lake County, 2020 - Trump 59.6%, Biden 39.5%
Marion County, 2020 - Trump 62.5%, Biden 36.6%

[radical noodle]

30. For sure

and I acknowledged that in my reply. But convincing left-leaning people not to come here (something I see all the time) just makes the numbers worse. I want to recruit more Democrats to the area... which means I don't want us to look hopeless, that's all. We cannot afford to give up here.

[orthoclad]

34. This retired Boomer

says you're wrong.

desantic wn by a whisker the first time. Now he's running a reign of terror. We have to fight that, and not abandon the people.

[Mariana]

35. De Santis didn't keep any secrets about what he would do if reelected.

He won by such a large margin because he made it clear he intended to run a reign of terror.

[Jilly_in_VA]

10. Soggy toast

since most of it will soon be underwater.

[RKP5637]

2. Florida has fallen off the cliff into a sea of evilness. What a shame. It is really getting

grotesque. And all for political gain by some deranged politicians.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

3. Being "accepting"

Is what these fascist scumbags are exactly against.

[RKP5637]

5. They appear to want to turn schools into fascist indoctrination camps, much like

Hitler's Youth Camps.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

6. Yep. The asshats who railed on for decades

About the evils of (non-existent) liberal indoctrination in the schools and universities.

[orthoclad]

8. Goes to show that the arguments

they make are just figleaves. It's about power, pure and simple.

[RKP5637]

9. Exactly, and then world domination. And their f'en bleeding hearts, "oh, we're saving the

kids from these groomers and pedophile teachers, etc." Damn I hate these people. There are mentally ill and disgusting. As a kid I wondered how Hitler brainwashed a nation, and now I see it happening here. And the populace often seems ignorant and naive. Gullible for anything they spew.

[orthoclad]

17. count how many R pols are sex offenders

I've tried making lists a few times. It gets long.

Most of the time I argue against the "projection" line, saying that it's instead the old Nazi line of accuse your opponent of what you're planning, but in the case of pedophilia, I think it really is projection.

That's why I use QOP: Queer Old Pedophiles.

[RKP5637]

21. I've seen some of the list at one time, it is huge, endless R sex offenders. n/t

[Hekate]

16. Aside from the insanity of this, I just want to say: Do not give up on our Floridian DUers...

…or the other Dems in Florida.

Do Not Give Up.

[orthoclad]

18. Don't cede the ground,

the only reason the crazies are in power is from voter suppression and intimidation.
Giving up on Florida now would be like abandoning Mississippi and Alabama in the 60s.

[Hekate]

19. Exactly

[Hekate]

32. Remember Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy? We need to use that again.

[edisdead]

23. I am not sure

Florida has cost us tons of resources in the past few elections. I am not saying to neglect it altogether but it is becoming extremely hard to win there. Not all hope is lost there but it is becoming a millstone to a degree.

Residents need to show some movement before I can invest outside of blue zones there.

[Mariana]

27. Florida is the biggest MAGAt magnet in the country.

There's no sign that's going to change any time soon.

[radical noodle]

31. Thank you! n/t

[Initech]

20. Ugh, Florida has become a fascist totalitarian shit hole.

[Ray Bruns]

25. My guess if she had shown Disney's "Song of the South" she would have been fine.