Florida teacher ‘terminated’ after ‘memorializing her classroom’ to Black Lives Matter
Thomas McDonald
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A Florida High School teacher has been relieved of her teaching duties after hanging a Black Lives Matter flag in her classroom, according to the state’s education commissioner Richard Corcoran.
“I’m getting sued right now in Duval County, which is Jacksonville, because of a whole classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter,” Corcoran said. “We made sure [the teacher] was terminated.”
Corcoran announced changes to the state’s curriculum guidelines known as B.E.S.T. standards, as a way to keep teachers from “indoctrinating” students. “We’re passing a rule this coming month that says for the 185,000 teachers, you can’t indoctrinate students with stuff that is not on our standards— our new BEST standards,” Corcoran said.
The teacher Cocoran refers to was later identified as Amy Donofrio, who the Southern Poverty Law Center represents in a lawsuit against the school district.
The SPLC’s lawsuit seeks to “reinstate Donofrio to her teaching position” and requests a court order banning school policies that “prevent educators from exercising their First Amendment rights by supporting the Black Lives Matter movement” and “advocating for anti-racist curricula and policies,” according to the press release.
Donofrio is also suing Duval School’s High School Region Superintendent for “relentless retaliation and violation of her rights to free speech and expression.”
The SPLC argues Donofrio’s removal from teaching was “in retaliation for displaying the flag over school administrators’ objections.”
“I hope this case will set a needed precedent. Teachers should not be punished for supporting their students’ humanity. Our students matter, and as educators, we will no longer tolerate them being systemically damaged, silenced, and failed,” Donofrio said in a statement. “To our Black students, we see you, we stand with you, and you matter.”
Many Republican-controlled states have recently begun pushing back against leftist indoctrination in schools, including banning the teaching of critical race theory.