Florida Teacher Fired After Desperate Attempt to Smear DeSantis Backfires
A teacher in Florida lost his job after posting a video accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of removing scores of random books from school library shelves.
Brian Covey, a substitute teacher at Mandarin Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida, has been fired from his teaching position, according to First Coast News.
Covey originally posted the false narrative about Florida school books on Jan. 27, with the claim that they removed “every single book” from his classroom.
Since y’all wanna play the “this isn’t really happening” game https://t.co/bVUFOXPc6a pic.twitter.com/fUUkJgi5ls
— JagsFanBrian✊🏿✊🏽✊ (@JagsFanBrian) January 27, 2023
But on Thursday, he was let go from the school.
“Got the ‘your services are no longer needed’ call,” Covey tweeted on Thursday. “Kinda crazy to be gaslit by the school board when their directive to remove classroom libraries is posted online. So if anyone knows of a financial planning & analysis job in Jax I would appreciate the heads up.”
Got the “your services are no longer needed” call.
Kinda crazy to be gaslit by the school board when their directive to remove classroom libraries is posted online.
So if anyone knows of a financial planning & analysis job in Jax I would appreciate the heads up.
— JagsFanBrian✊🏿✊🏽✊ (@JagsFanBrian) February 16, 2023
The Duval County Public Schools gave the media a statement saying that he was released for misrepresenting the facts.
“In discussion between the district and ESS regarding this individual’s misrepresentation of the books available to students in the school’s library and the disruption this misrepresentation has caused, it was determined that he had violated social media and cell phone policies of his employer. Therefore, ESS determined these policy violations made it necessary to part ways with this individual,” the school wrote.
The situation arose over the new directives from the state to make sure the books that kids are not exposed to inappropriate content surreptitiously placed in schools by radical left-wing activists.
It is true that the state’s schools were asked to “err on the side of caution” and to begin the effort to evaluate their books. Duval County school officials did note that the evaluation had been underway, but officials added that the teacher’s social media posts were false.
“We did direct teachers to temporarily reduce their classroom library collections to titles that were previously approved while waiting for media specialists to curate a more expansive list of approved titles,” DCPS Superintendent Diana Greene said in a statement, according to First Coast News. “However, at no time should a classroom have been without reading resources.”
It seems logical that if a review of books is being undertaken, they would necessarily have to be removed from shelves to be reviewed. It isn’t as if all books are being banned, but one has to start somewhere to literally review the millions of books spread across the state’s schools.
Covey is lucky that he didn’t face other consequences. According to the Washington Post, those who knowingly violate the new rules can be charged with a third-degree felony ($5,000 fine and up to five years in jail) for exposing students to inappropriate items that the Florida Department of Education has deemed “harmful to minors.”
A Florida Department of Education document notes that the targeted books are those that “predominantly appeal to a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest,” and are “patently offensive” “without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”
DeSantis also blasted the teacher’s false video.
“That video, that was a fake narrative, that was not true,” the governor said on Tuesday according to the Orlando Sentinel. “What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to act like somehow we don’t want books.”
The governor is right. The left-wing teacher was trying to make it look like Republicans in general and DeSantis in particular are wholly against all books for kids. It is a ridiculous lie, but an important narrative for the left who hopes to use it to destroy DeSantis ahead of his possible run for president in 2024.
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