Petition to remove Hernando Co. (FL) school board member for Disney movie complaint hits 18K names

[In It to Win It]

Tallahassee Democrat via Yahoo News

A petition to remove a school board member who targeted a teacher for showing a Disney movie in class has reached more than 18,000 signatures on Change.org.

The Hernando County school board member, Shannon Rodriguez, allegedly filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Education against fifth grade teacher Jenna Barbee for streaming "Strange World," a 2022 Disney movie that features an out, gay character.

"With the school year coming to an end, time is of the essence. This petition urges Mrs. Rodriguez to listen to the community, step down from her position as a school board member, and serve her community and the school system in a different capacity, as this is not a good fit," wrote Hernando County resident and teacher Shelby Waymire, the creator of the Change.org petition.

The petition started two weeks ago, and as of Friday morning, has 18,708 signatures.

"Shannon Rodriguez has displayed time and time again that, as a school board member, she does NOT support those who work in schools and has shown her disconnect with the reality of the public education system," the petition reads. "She has called staff members lazy, claimed we are exposing children to pornography, and aligned herself with those who state that educators are indoctrinating and grooming children."

[dchill]

1. Here's hoping for more of this kind of reaction!

[Cha]

2. Yay.. TY!

[Timeflyer]

3. This is great!

[Stargazer99]

4. You don't make any one gay

[BOSSHOG]

9. But the Catholic Church has an awesome grooming machine

Making children Catholic training them to give money to the Church until they die. And yet it’s gays we have to fear?

[Katinfl]

5. I live in Hernando County FL

Must confess that I knew about a teacher showing the movie but I did not know it was in my backyard. My bad. Must confess i do not keep up with local news, local politics, local nothing basically. Not much to see here. It is, of course, a Republican county. Am surprised to read about this so maybe there is hope after all. I am 76 years old and have no children, or grandchildren here. I don’t keep up with what is going on in the schools other than to know that I would never put my child in a school here. But to see that kind of response in this matter is somewhat reassuring that there is hope for the future. Wish I knew where I could sign the petition.

[markodochartaigh]

6. There was a link in the article mentioned in the post. Here you are

https://www.change.org/p/remove-shannon-rodriguez-hernando-county-school-board-member

[LisaM]

7. If people would pay more attention to school board elections...

there would be less need for this. I am on a Facebook page for my small home town and at school board election time, sure enough, a Moms for a Liberty candidate appeared, trying to seem reasonable and benign, but no matter what people asked her, she would change the subject to the book "Gender Queer". You could ask her if bus drivers needed higher pay and she would ask if you knew what was in the book "Gender Queer".

Finally someone who was apparently smarter than the rest of us combined actually went to all the school libraries (there are five) and discovered that none of them even had it on their shelves (whether or not they should have is a different issue). So there was literally nothing for the candidate to complain about and she faded away and I am glad to say, lost the election.

The larger point is that they are attempting to take over school boards while voters are asleep at the switch and we can't let them. See who the teachers unions endorse. Vote for those people.

[NoMoreRepugs]

8. THIS.

[In It to Win It]

11. Ron DeSanstis has been closely involved in school board races

more than ANY previous governor.

He has helped to elect, and has appointed, many crazy right wingers to school boards that parrot the same bullshit that he does, people who will faithfully execute his ridiculous fight-woke-schools law.

I hope this is making people notice their school board elections.

[Paladin]

10. Oh fuck YEAH!

This is the only way things get better, folks. Large-scale public action against our enemies.

[intheflow]

12. Well, yay, though it's not going to do any good.

No elected official is obliged to pay attention to national/international online petitions. How many of the 18k signatories live in that school district? I’m guessing a small percentage (tho I’d love to be proven wrong).