Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries. The guidance by Charlotte County Superintendent Mark Vianello and the school board's attorney, Michael McKinley, was obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP) through a public records request and shared with Popular Information. FFTRP requested "electronic records of district and school decisions regarding classroom and library materials." In response, FFTRP received a document memorializing a July 24 conversation between Vianello and district librarians, known in Florida as media specialists.
Is the goal to create places so inhospitable to open minds, that those who possess a shred of empathy flee, creating a conservative gravity well of votes? Is that even sustainable
I don't know whether to be appalled or hope that the gravity well becomes large enough it generates an event horizon that no stupidity could cross out of.
'Wish I could upvote a second time for great use of the term "event horizon"!
"We're leaving."
"No, we can't leave. Our orders are specific."
"Rescue the liberals, salvage what's left of Florida. The liberals are dead, doctor. Florida killed them."
Something something accretion disk
"Where we're going you don't need books to read."
The goal is to create little Republicans.
I have a high school age kid in rural FL. If that is the intended effect, it's not working.
They haven't finished fucking with the educational system yet.
I work at a high school (in a library, actually) in California, and we've had student walkouts for much less. Are the angry students doing any major protesting that you've seen? Or are the schools cracking down so hard already and they don't want to risk it, or a high enough percentage of kids are assholes so they mock kids who care and it keeps those kids from protesting? I'm sure there's a lot happening that we don't hear about, so I'm curious what it's like for Gen Z who overall doesn't seem to stand for bigotry in general.
That's half the goal.
The other half is to make areas so hostile that the people who can't flee just keep their heads down and stay closeted so no one hurts them.
And to increase suicides