Conservatism News and Discussions

weatheriscool
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Florida teacher investigated by state agency for showing Disney movie in class
Ana Goñi-Lessan
Tallahassee Democrat

A Florida teacher is under investigation by the state Department of Education after what she believes is a targeted attack by a school board member who took issue with a Disney movie shown in her classroom.

At a Hernando County School Board meeting Tuesday, fifth-grade teacher Jenna Barbee alleges school board member Shannon Rodriguez reported her to DOE for showing her students Disney's 2022 movie "Strange World." It's the first Disney movie with an out, gay character.

Barbee, a teacher at Winding Waters K-8, said during public comment the Disney movie tied into her students' Earth science lesson and did not have sexually inappropriate content.

"The word indoctrination is thrown around a lot right now, but it seems that those who are using it are using it as a defense tactic for their own fear-based beliefs without understanding the true meaning of the word," Barbee said at the lectern.

Read more: https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/ ... 211841007/
weatheriscool
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DeSantis signs bill to defund DEI programs at Florida's public colleges
Source: Washington Post

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill into law Monday barring the state’s colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and limiting how race can be discussed in many courses.

-snip-

Florida’s new law prohibits public colleges from spending state or federal money on DEI efforts. These programs often assist colleges in increasing student and faculty diversity, which can apply to race and ethnicity, as well as sexual orientation, religion and socioeconomic status.

The law also forbids public colleges from offering general education courses — those that are part of a required curriculum for all college students — that “distort significant historical events,” teach “identity politics,” or are “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, or economic inequities.”

-snip-

DeSantis said students who want to study “niche subjects,” such as critical race theory, ought to look elsewhere. “Florida’s getting out of that game,” he said. “If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley. Go to some of these other places.”

-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/educatio ... -colleges/
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MT: Gianforte signs additional abortion restriction bills; one court challenge already refiled
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed four more bills this week targeting abortion access, including one that is already being challenged in court, just days after the state Supreme Court again affirmed that abortion is protected under the state constitution’s right to privacy.

Chief among the measures he signed Tuesday is House Bill 721, sponsored by House Speaker Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, which creates a ban in most instances on pre-viability abortions via the dilation and evacuation procedure – the most common method used for abortions for pregnancies 15 or more weeks from conception in Montana. It’s also referred to as a surgical abortion.

At a news conference earlier this month in which the Republican governor signed five other abortion restriction bills, Gianforte called the method “barbaric” and said it was “dangerous” for women and “demeaning” to medical professionals who perform the procedures.

The dilation and evacuation abortion procedure involves a practitioner removing a fetus from a person’s uterus through the use of surgical instruments. It is most often used in the second trimester of a pregnancy, while medication abortions are more often used in the first trimester.

Planned Parenthood of Montana filed a preemptive lawsuit against HB721 on April 10 in Lewis and Clark County District Court, but the judge in the case did not at the time grant a temporary restraining order against it because it had not been signed into law. Now that it has been signed, the bulk of the bill is in effect immediately.



https://dailymontanan.com/2023/05/16/gi ... y-refiled/
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Florida school district sued for violating first amendment rights with book bans
https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-scho ... 34248.html

PEN America, a non-profit US organization that works to protect freedom of speech, along with publishing company Penguin Random House, and individual parents, have filed a lawsuit against a Florida school district for implementing book bans.

The suit argues the removal and restriction of access to books discussing race, racism and LGBTQ+ identities violates the first amendment. It comes after rightwing groups have sought to remove books from libraries and schools in the US – often ones that address issues of racism or sexual identity.

The book ban movement, led by conservative groups – some of whom aren’t even currently parents of school children – gained special traction last year, spearheaded by groups like Moms For Liberty and No Left Turn in Education.

In an interview with the Guardian, Nadine Farid Johnson, the managing director of PEN America Washington and Free Expression Programs, said Florida’s Escambia county school district in particular, was at the heart of the recent book ban movement.

“Looking at the landscape of what is happening and recognizing Escambia county, in particular, and its efforts to restrict and remove these books – it is time now to challenge this for the unconstitutional act that it is,” she said.
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"I'm a Professor. Florida Just Banned Everything I Teach."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/im-a-prof ... e?ref=home

Opinion
I’m a Professor. Florida Just Banned Everything I Teach.
UNFREE STATE OF FLORIDA
Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t want college students to learn anything but whitewashed history about racist violence in America.
William Horne
Published May. 17, 2023 11:18AM ET

Writing during the apartheid regime of Jim Crow, famed historian and founder of Black History Month Carter G. Woodson observed that “the philosophy and ethics resulting from our educational system have justified slavery, peonage, segregation, and lynching.” That system is exactly what Gov. Ron DeSantis has tried to resurrect in signing SB 266 into law, a whitewashing tactic that has historically coincided with white supremacist violence in the U.S.

The law builds on a wave of book, content, and course bans passed by Republican legislators, schools boards, and governors in 36 states over the last year. SB 266 not only forbids scholars of race, class, gender, and inequality from teaching in their areas of expertise, but also requires that general education courses indoctrinate students in the “Western canon,” drawing on a right-wing “American Birthright” curriculum organized in part by DeSantis ally Chris Rufo.

The information that college instructors like me are now forbidden by law from sharing with their adult students under SB 266 leaves them less able to understand the world around them and to critically engage Republican policy priorities like voter suppression or attacks on trans persons that promote inequality. It leaves students less informed and more vulnerable—that appears to be the whole point.

snip//

Attacks on education and access to information like Florida’s SB 266 have never been about “protecting” students or promoting education. They are about wielding power and eliminating dissent. That is what makes this tactic so dangerous and, historically, a precursor to white supremacist violence.


William Horne is an Arthur J. Ennis Postdoctoral Scholar at Villanova University who writes about the relationship of race to labor, freedom, and capitalism during Reconstruction and Jim Crow.
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weatheriscool wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 8:04 pm
Is it just me or that photo looks fake?
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A ban on Texas public universities' diversity offices inches closer to becoming law
After hours of debate and multiple attempts to kill the legislation from Democrats, Texas is one step closer to banning diversity, equity and inclusion offices in public colleges and universities Friday.

In a 83 to 60 vote, the Texas House gave preliminary approval to one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s legislative priorities that would prohibit such offices, programs and any required diversity training.

In an attempt to stop a deluge of amendments from Democrats opposing Senate Bill 17, Republicans approved an amendment offered by the bill’s sponsor, Seguin Republican John Kuempel, that requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to conduct an impact study into the legislation, allow universities to make “reasonable efforts” to re-assign employees in DEI offices to new positions with similar pay, and shifts the day the bill goes into effect back by three months to Jan. 1.

The coordinating board is the state agency that oversees higher education policy at public colleges and universities.

This amendment was also an attempt to appease Democrats’ concerns that eliminating diversity offices and programs would put universities at risk to lose federal grants. Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, said the extension will give universities time to ensure current grants can comply with any DEI requirements.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/19 ... sity-bill/
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NAACP issues advisory against Florida travel over DeSantis 'hostile' policy

Source: Wisconsin Law Journal
Similar to when the U.S. State Department issues a travel advisory warning U.S. Citizens not to travel abroad to a certain country due to safety concerns, the NAACP issued a similar warning to persons of color, advising them not to travel to Florida.

The travel advisory issued Saturday by the NAACP Board of Directors was issued as a direct result of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ “aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools,” officials said in a written statement.

The travel advisory states:
“Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”
Read more: https://wislawjournal.com/2023/05/21/na ... le-policy/
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