An incident in Hernando County, Florida was the subject of a recent SunBund report on this here blog. It involved a radical right-wing school board member, “Moms for Liberty” GOP operative Shannon Rodriguez, who ratted out her kid’s fifth-grade teacher for showing students a Disney movie that had a gay character. There was national coverage of the controversy, just the latest embarrassment for Florida.
Earlier this week, Hernando County held its first school board meeting since it was put under that harsh spotlight. So many people showed up that the meeting spanned more than eight hours to give those who wanted to speak a chance to state their case.
Although hard-right instigators put out cattle-calls that drew out-of-county wingnuts (including the inexplicably Proud Boys), the emerging consensus is that the community is fed up with right-wing, god-bothering, DeSantis sycophants attacking their teachers and administrators.
And keep in mind that Hernando is a deeply conservative county that is more than 90% white and voted for Trump over Biden by 30 points in 2020 and DeSantis over Crist by 40 points in 2022. So it’s not just the libs who are sick of the “Moms for Liberty” busybodies.
A WaPo column describes the Hernando County school board meeting (gift link):
The scene featured teachers pointedly declaring that right-wing attacks are driving them to quit, even as parents and students forcefully stood up on their behalf, demanding a halt to the hysteria…
At the meeting, right-wing parents and a minority of the school board amplified the usual attacks: Pornography in classrooms, indoctrination, wokeness. Watching them, it was impossible to avoid the sense that they were relishing every second of the tumult they’ve unleashed…
But the real story of the night was the response. Again and again, parents and students forcefully defended teachers. They cast the right’s attacks, the censoring of educators and the removal of books as the real threats to education…
Just as a car wreck commands attention, the ugliness of right-wing culture-warring often transfixes the news media. But another story is beckoning: Ordinary parents everywhere and their elected representatives are responding, and declaring that they’ve had enough.
The article also outlines pushback happening in other states, and the authors are right — we need to hear more about the parents, teachers, administrators and elected officials who are fed up with this bullshit and fighting back! The backlash is organic, in sharp contrast to the astroturfed GOP “Moms for Liberty” nitwits.
There’s already a teacher shortage in Florida, and these unhinged attacks are driving more people out of the profession. The teacher Rodriguez targeted about the Disney movie has already resigned. At the meeting, the county’s teachers union president said nearly 50 more are planning to resign. Hernando County math teacher Alyssa Marano, who is also resigning, said this to the crowd:
“No one is teaching your kids to be gay. Sometimes, they just are gay. I have math to teach. I literally don’t have time to teach your kids to be gay.”
The response in Hernando County is incredibly heartening. Even though my kid is grown and the “Moms for Liberty” political operatives aren’t targeting our local schools yet, I plan to show up at every school board meeting. I hope people nationwide who are disgusted by these deranged attacks on our schools are prepared to do the same.
It’s up to us to stand up to these fascist bullies. They are not the majority, and the only way they win is when we don’t show up. So let’s show up and chase these fanatics right back under their rocks.
West of the Rockies
(Inexplicably) Proud Man-Babies.
Villago Delenda Est
The MSM is a huge part of the problem. The Ripley approach seems to be a solid way here.
Stacy
@West of the Rockies: King babies
Jeffg166
@Villago Delenda Est: Agree. I do hope this MSM obsession with a minority point of view goes away in 2024. Doubtful, but I can hope.
Kent
The Mom’s for Liberty assholes showed up at a neighboring school district here in SW Washington and got one of their crazies elected to the school board. They tried in my district but thankfully we live in a purple area and people were having absolutely NONE of it. We have a sizeable Asian community which sometimes trends conservative on some issues like crime, but will absolutely NOT put up with Bible thumpers fucking with their schools.
Miss Bianca
Oh, thank God! Go, Florida parents! I hear one of our God-bothering School Board members may be contemplating a move to Florida – just in time for this, I hope. Our gain, your loss.
Mousebumples
I was encouraged by my local school board elections in April – all liberal/Dem emdirsed candidates won, versus some of the Maga-heads that were running.
Chris
@Jeffg166:
Or maybe it’ll be good for us if they keep reminding everyone that this shit is happening, even if they’re dumb enough to think these people are The Voice Of The Peope.
I have my doubts about “if conservatives keep being awful the backlash will sweep them away eventually!” politics, but this really does seem like the kind of thing that both infuriates politically unengaged people and hits them where they live. As the OP indicates.
Skepticat
And thank goodness for it. I hope it spreads across the country.
Medicine Man
This bit: “Watching them, it was impossible to avoid the sense that they were relishing every second of the tumult they’ve unleashed…”
This is the most power they’ve ever had in their lives and they are loving it. I hate these people so much.
Anonymous At Work
The real question has yet to be addressed: Will this change any votes in the next local elections? Fascists only respond to or with violence, either literally (see Jan 6th) or metaphorically (see 11/3/2020). If they aren’t voted out of office, showing up at school board meetings does nothing.
Eolirin
This sort of thing, especially coming on the back of pandemic related disruptions, is going to fuck Florida’s educational system for a very long time. It’s not like you can flip a switch and suddenly get teacher replacements for all these people resigning. Even if the backlash gets the right to stop attacking schools, the damage will have been done, and even if the right steps are taken to try to rectify the situation, it’ll take a lot of years to get staffing levels back up. People in this country really struggle with thinking at a system level or having patience, so it may be hard to sustain the kinds of efforts necessary to make progress. And the longer this goes on and the more teachers resign prematurely, the more new teachers avoid the state or people in the state avoid becoming teachers, the worse the problem will get.
I’m not sure how this gets fixed, and the consequences are pretty damn severe in the long term.
JoyceH
This has all happened before. Remember back in the – 80s? 90s? Helmed by Ralph Reed if I recall, the notion was for the far right to gradually take control of the country starting with local positions. So they started with school boards and ran what they called stealth campaigns, posing as normal conservatives until they could get some power. They did manage to get quite a few wins at school boards and then unveiled their true radicalism. Caused a lot of turmoil, but their districts voted them out the first chance they got.
Roberto el oso
@Anonymous At Work: “If they aren’t voted out of office, showing up at school board meetings does nothing”
I disagree. I’ve only attended a handful of school board meetings (to support friends who were planning on speaking), and it seemed to me that when there was something before the board that was reactionary in its outcomes, speaking out in opposition was vital. In other words, when nutjobs are already on the board and pushing their agenda this is exactly when one needs to show up.
Betty Cracker
Probably worth keeping in mind why the Florida GOP cooked up the “Moms for Liberty” movement in the first place. It was an angle for political gain, but it’s also about funneling taxpayer dollars from public schools to for-profit wingnut indoctrination centers. DeSantis signed a bill that made it all pay off. It’s definitely a model that can be replicated.
nickdag
uhhh, could someone explain to me what “sunbund” means? thanks
Mike in NC
The local newspaper had a front page article today about some communities rethinking Pride Month due to people like Ron DeFascist and his “don’t say gay” culture war agenda. Expect a great deal of far right noise and violence to occur this month unless we push back against them.
Noah Brand
I think sometimes that in the future, we’ll remember 2020 as the year we broke the back of fascism in America. Trump will be seen as the extinction burst of the far-right impulse in American thought. When he botched the response to COVID, he tried to give himself a win by sending violent DHS/BORTAC shocktroops into American cities to quell dissent, and they were soundly defeated. In November 2020, Americans said no to fascism at the ballot box. Since then, they’ve been flailing around like a mortally wounded creature, doing as much damage as they can, but having their despicable power grabs and attacks on minorities opposed by American citizens whose overwhelming message is “Just stop it. Act like a decent person, for goodness’ sake.”
This is an oversimplification, but sometimes I think–or hope–that it’s the oversimplification we’ll settle on when we try to sum up what happened.
dww44
@Betty Cracker: a bit off topic, Betty, but I follow you on Twitter and although I don’t do much Twitter time these days (why do I keep getting the odd far right MAGA type in my feed?), I saw one of yours night before last just before bed and truly laughed out loud. Shared it yesterday with members of my family. Spouse cackled when I showed it to him.
It was the one with the 1966 Newsweek cover with the teenage couple on the motor bike and your message to Gen Z members was so perfect. As I don’t know how to link to here, maybe you can update your post sometime during the day so everyone else can have a good cackle too.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Betty, I am in awe of your vow to go to every school board meeting. That’s determination. And endurance.
Alison Rose
A Booktuber I follow, Reads With Rachel, is a mom of two young boys in Hillsborough County, and she’s been really forceful about pushing back on this shit. She has a (long) video where she discusses the overarching issues, and specifically the banning of This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson, including news clips where she’s speaking at a school board meeting and reading raunchy quotes from the Bible to ask why that book is ok and Dawson’s isn’t, which definitely made some people there big mad. It’s a good watch if you have the time.
Scout211
I was just reading about this story here.
This struck me:
At 63 years old, who “informed” him about all the “gays and lesbians” showing up that it made him at 63 years old feel like he had to show up to a school board meeting?
Marmot
@Betty Cracker:
Do you mean vouchers for private schools, or some other horrible thing?
Betty Cracker
Several folks in comments piped up to say the woman in the photo is Jan Smithers, who later played Bailey on WKRP. I had no idea!
Kent
I assumed it was a reference to fascism in the sunshine state but I could be wrong.
Betty Cracker
@Marmot: Yep — school vouchers are now available to everyone, regardless of income, and the money comes out of the education budget, so public schools will get the short end of the stick while edu-grifters get rich.
@Kent: Bingo.
Benw
Same shit went down around the mask mandates when my kids went back to school. I was pleased that the pro/anti mask split was about 50/50 at our board meetings. The MAGAs were gleeful asshats, heckling the pro mask speakers and rambling over the politely requested 3 minute time limit. They were having a great time until the board voted to follow the NYS mayor’s mask requirement and then they lost their shit. Screaming and crying; one dude yelled at the board, “YOU’RE TEARING APART THE FABRIC OF SOCIETY “. Colossal babies but we have to keep fighting back
RaflW
It’s June, so of course it is time to remember that the Proud Boys should be the name of some group of gogo boys in nut-sling swimsuits dancing up a storm in parades around the country.
Alas, they are nutbags of an entirely different and very nasty sort. Glad several of them have met the hammer of J6 justice.
Old School
@nickdag:
To expand on Kent’s answer, the Bund Report informed the world of Nazi activities during WWII. SunBund references Florida.
kindness
I’m glad the local parents are starting to show up at School Board meetings. Maybe, just maybe they might want to reconsider who they vote for in future elections as it has been shown, elections have consequences.
Ruckus
@Jeffg166:
This is for sure a minority opinion – but.
It isn’t a tiny minority. It is a segment of our population. They are looking for life to go back to a way they think it was, many, many, many decades ago. But the only place is was like this is in their tiny minds. Yes life a long time ago looked a lot different through rose thorn glasses, but really no actual living human wants to wear glasses made out of rose thorns because it’s difficult to see through the blood running down one’s face. These are people who want to control everything because the deity they worship says mumble, mumble, whatever, over and over until they have no idea what the fuck they are asking all of us to actually do, but they do know they want to control everything. Screw them and their bullshit.
nickdag
@Old School
@Kent
Thanks! That makes perfect sense.
Jackie
@Skepticat: I’m sure it will! This will be added to Democratic candidate campaigns, along with pro health rights for women, anti book bannings, pro LBGTQ rights, pro voting rights, etc.
misterpuff
They were very active prior to WWII, trying to set up an American Quisling movement.
Kelly
“Mom’s Union” an Oregon org very similar to “Mom’s for Liberty” ran a nutcase in the May election for our school board. Listed “Oregon Right to Life” endorsement. Anti-abortion endorsement for school board? She drew just under 40%.
Jackie
@Betty Cracker: Unless you’re a Boebert…
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Bostondreams
@Betty Cracker:
And of course we see private schools raising their tuition as a result. Who could have known?
smith
@Bostondreams: Well, if they’re going to give vouchers to just any old riffraff, then private schools need a way to discourage the riffraff. After all, what is the point of going private if the kids end up going to school with those people anyway?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Hear, hear! When I was young in the 70s, the nostalgia was for the 50s as this wonderful idyllic innocent time. It was the time of “Happy Days” and “Grease”.
Maybe for a segment of the population it was like that. But it was also the time of “West Side Story” and Emmet Till.
Old School
@misterpuff: The German word “bund” translates as “federation”.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ruckus:
A lot of what they want to go back to is very real. It is only very recently that mainstream society stopped thinking of trans women as anything but humorously pathetic sexual perverts. Gay marriage was something Republicans could run on nationwide and win in 2004. In the 1980s, these people could inflict physical violence even to the point of murder on out gays and expect to get away with it. The world has actually changed radically, and they want the old, cruel way back.
smith
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I was a kid in the 50s, and I can assure you it was no “Happy Days.” There was a reason the 60s happened.
JaneE
We had the same type of people trying to block the new sex-ed curriculum. Pornography!!!! and inappropriate.
There were flyers up where I take my exercise class, because the owner is a RWNJ. They even included QR codes so you could see the horrors they planned to inflict on grades 6-8. Of course I read them.
The closest thing to pornography was a drawing of the reproductive system – in isolation. The same drawings you see in doctor’s offices, only less realistic. And they were supposed to talk about the changes to the body that happen in puberty. They did that when I was in school.
But the inappropriate part? That’s where the problems really were.
They talked about sex and gender. The emphasis seemed to be don’t rush into anything, just be aware of yourself and what you feel comfortable with. Emphasis on the child making their own decisions about anything to do with sex, not giving in to pressure if it didn’t feel right. You could interpret it as wait for sex, or as wait to figure out what your sexuality is.
And they talked about what conception is (fertilization) and pregnancy is (implantation in the uterus) and how you could prevent conception and/or pregnancy. With (gasp) contraceptives. Multiple kinds, that work in different ways. But a pregnancy did not begin at conception.
They talked about STD’s and how some contraceptives reduced the risk and others didn’t.
Worst of all, in all grades they taught children that in our state, they have rights. Rights to obtain contraception (after age 12) without their parents being notified.
The state curriculum presented facts, and one fact was that not having sex will prevent STD’s and pregnancy. But it also talked about alternatives that could do that if you were having sex. And that you as an individual had a right to determine how and when your sexuality would be expressed.
The new curriculum was approved 4-1. A win for the kids, I think.
rikyrah
Never forget…
The parent that caused this?
Kelly
We had a wingnut “Mom’s Union” school board candidate in our May election. She listed an “Oregon Right to Life” endorsement. An anti-abortion endorsement for school board? She lost with 38% of the vote.
Craig
@Betty Cracker: yeah, The GOP has been about hollowing out public schools for years. Destroying education, and indoctrination into right wing ideology is definitely a goal of theirs. EAIAC
Marmot
@Ruckus:
Yep. Like fascist movements, they hype national rebirth with a return to an imaginary past. Good thing that’s the only …
Well, that and an obsession with the military and guns. Good thing these two are the only …
Oh! And reverence for “traditional masculinity,” with dismissal of all things “feminine” beyond childrearing. These three are the only …
Well, there’s the way they blame “elites” for everything, while claiming to defend regular folks. That’s just populism, not necessarily fas …
And the obsession with plots—conspiracies and false flags and secret agendas. Surely there aren’t any more commonalities with …
Oops! Violent right-wing gangs that intimidate, attack, or kill minority targets and political opponents, especially when it seems they might recruit some regular folk to join the harassment of a distrusted minority group. I think that’s the final, purely coincidental overlap with …
I guess there’s also the widespread attempts to disrupt normal democratic proceedings and run off officials, functionaries, civil society types.
But we really can’t say this is a true fascist movement until they try to physically overthrow the government.
Oh wait.
oldster
As someone who taught for decades before retirement, this line sums it up for me:
“I have math to teach. I literally don’t have time to teach your kids to be gay.”
And although the wingers don’t believe it, the same applies not only in STEM disciplines, but in the humanities as well. There’s a lot of content to cover, the syllabus is long, the semester is short, and the students’ attention spans are even shorter. I literally did not have time to teach any kids to be gay. Please, just scan the iambic pentameter correctly, and figure out your sexuality on your own time.
geg6
I have two friends who were teachers in FL and both have retired in the last year even though they were not contemplating it at all just two years ago. They’ve had enough and they are both moving back to PA to top it off. And there are enough substitute slots available here that both are going to sub for next couple of years until they are ready to give it up for good.
We also have a couple of school districts locally that have been turned upside down by these asshole Moms for Liberty. Screaming school board meetings and all. Not sure how it’s going to shake out in either. One is the district in the county seat, which is an upper middle class and rather snobby district and I think cooler heads are likely to prevail there simply because they want their kids to get into the best post-secondary institutions possible. The other district is a rural district with a mix of upper middle class professionals and dirt poor farmers. Lots of “Christians” among both. Not sure how that will shake out. We’ll see when we get the new school boards in November.
Marmot
@smith: I haven’t checked into it, but I’m dead certain that the wingnuts of the ’50s were also pining for the good old days.
I can’t imagine what kind of brain short-circuit causes it, but I’m convinced this very human failing causes an outsized number of problems in society.
theturtlemoves
The whackos, unfortunately, won in my school district in a super low-turnout election. 28% turnout in Oregon where it’s 100% mail-in is pathetic. So, we are going to have a woman on the school board who was fired from being a teacher because she refused a Covid vaccination.
lee
In our area it is ‘Patriot Mobile’. They are mobile phone provider that is grifting the rubes out of a lot of money. They took over a school board of Southlake, Texas (a few miles west of me). Southlake is proudly and unrepentantly racist. If you hear of a school in Texas chanting racist shit, it is almost always Southlake.
Annnnnyyyywaaaay.
Patriot Mobile backed 2 candidates to our school board (as well as other boards in the area) and the candidates in our district were trounced (it was not even close). I’m not sure they were successful anywhere but Southlake.
This is north Texas suburbs. Our county used to be deep red, but we are quickly turning purple to whatever is the blue side of purple.
Another interesting side note: Southlake has 9 federal lawsuits pending against them and has failed to pass a balanced budget.
TXSwede
@lee: I live in Southlake, and everything you say is true. Sadly, Patriot Mobile was successful in Keller and Mansfield, and won seats in GCISD, as well.
Between their successes, and the countywide voter suppression efforts of our new County Judge, it is going to be a while before Tarrant finishes the job of turning blue.
Ruckus
And keep in mind that Hernando is a deeply conservative county that is more than 90% white and voted for Trump over Biden by 30 points in 2020 and DeSantis over Crist by 40 points in 2022. So it’s not just the libs who are sick of the “Moms for Liberty” busybodies.
In this day and age I’d bet there are people who will still vote conservative but also do not like the strict BS definition of conservative that groups like “moms for absolutely rigid non liberty” want to be normal.
Grover Gardner
Here in Southern Oregon, I’m happy to report that all the GOP-backed candidates for Jackson County school boards were defeated. This was a pleasant surprise. It’s a non-partisan race but one candidate texted local Democrats (I assume) to say that she was against book bans and believed in inclusiveness. Those were the magic words for a lot of us, I suppose. Also, though the overall turnout was low, more Dems voted than Repubs.
Ruckus
@smith:
This!!!!!!
If it hadn’t been for the depression and WWII I think the 50s would have been the 60s. The world, or at least the US was waking up to possibilities rather than only the past and sanctifying only one lifestyle for everyone. The rather massive movement of the population after WWII, the abilities of communication opening up, those made the thinking that everyone had to be like they came out of the same centuries old mold very obsolete. And that communication has changed the world dramatically. Look at what we are doing right now. In the context of humanity this concept of a blog, on a basically world wide communication network, with people from many countries participating is a dramatic, dynamic, massive change from when I was born.
Ruckus
@Marmot:
I like your style. Covers a lot of bases using a story that gets attention. And because it’s really not ever only one thing. I mean in the context of going back a hundred years and trying to live like they think it was, sure it’s one thing. But the reality is that it took all those years and we see that we don’t have to live like these asswipes want us to. And we don’t intend to. Or make anyone else do so. Because there are a number of reasons that restricted life to such a degree. And those reasons weren’t all that valid over the last 2000 yrs and far less valid today. Maybe we should build a village where they can all move to and live like the prehistoric cave people they want us to all be. See how they really like a time that everyone living in that time wanted to change because it sucked donkey balls.
JML
there’s a lot of this bullying going on at school board meetings against teachers in administrators everywhere. In one district in my state, the crazies made a takeover in what had been a fairly good district in a wealthier area. Since then you’ve had parents & board members demanding that teachers be fired for books being in the library they didn’t like, threats being made against the superintendent (who rapidly found a new job and quit), and everything going to hell.
pluky
@smith: The vouchers don’t come anyway near covering the cost of even a mid-tier private school. The goal is to break teachers’ unions.
The Moar You Know
@Scout211: Facebook, NextDoor, Twitter.
Chris T.
@Betty Cracker:
I’ve always thought that this would be fine provided the voucher value is set properly. For instance, you take your kid out of public school, you get a $5 voucher. The public school probably pays more than $5 just for the water the kid flushes down the toilets, so they come out ahead.
Now, if the voucher is for $10k, that’s about 2000 times too much…
Tim C.
@pluky: The other factor that kept the vouchers from going huge was the discovery that remote rural districts simply aren’t economicly viable places to have private schools or even a significant charter presence. This means all the money that gets diverted to private schools hurts rural red voters the most.
Paul in KY
@Ruckus: When they think back to this mythical halcyon period of 100 or 150 years ago, they are always in the fine brick house with the servants, etc.
Not in the dirt floored hovel where you use manure to fill in the cracks between the logs and scavenge for coal everyday to keep from freezing.