Conservatism

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Removal of ‘Ruby Bridges’ film from Pinellas school sparks outrage

A parent complained that the movie might teach white children to hate Black children.
www.tampabay.com www.tampabay.com
The Disney movie “Ruby Bridges,” which tells the tale of a 6-year-old who integrated New Orleans schools in the 1960s, has been a staple of Pinellas County Black History Month lessons for years.

It never caused a stir until this year, as parents across Florida exert increased powers to question what children can see and read in schools.

A North Shore Elementary parent who would not allow her child to watch the film when it was shown in early March later complained that it wasn’t appropriate for second graders. In a formal challenge dated March 6, Emily Conklin wrote that the use of racial slurs and scenes of white people threatening Ruby as she entered a school might result in students learning that white people hate Black people.

Pinellas school officials responded by banning the movie from use by all students at the St. Petersburg school until a review committee can assess it. While it remains available for other schools to use, the step is drawing strong opposition.

A countywide group that represents the interests of Black children in Pinellas public schools has sent an open letter to the community questioning why one parent’s complaint resulted in actions that affect all families at North Shore.

”Many from historically marginalized communities are asking whether this so-called integrated education system in Pinellas County can even serve the diverse community fairly and equitably,” wrote Ric Davis, president of Concerned Organization for Quality Education for Black Students. The group has been active for years, often working with school district officials and at times battling them in court.

The controversy follows a heated dispute earlier this year over the banning of Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” from all district high schools after one parent complained about a two-page rape scene. District officials cited new state law and a rule telling them to “err on the side of caution” when considering whether books should be used in classrooms and libraries.

The state’s guidelines, which some have called vague, have led to book challenges and bans by the dozens throughout Florida.

“The (Pinellas) district’s leadership appears to fear the potential consequences of not acting in the way they have on these two decisions,” Davis wrote in the open letter. “This approach to challenging times in education in our state raises serious questions about Superintendent (Kevin) Hendrick’s leadership.”

Davis acknowledged the political climate in Florida has educators second-guessing themselves about what materials to use in classes. Lawmakers have made clear that they don’t want books, movies or lessons about race to create student discomfort, though they also have said they want facts presented honestly.

The scenes depicted in “Ruby Bridges,” released in 1998, are historically accurate, Davis said, adding that the truth will not change because someone doesn’t like it.

“At the highest level of decision-making in the district, they have to have more sensitivity to the diversity of the community they serve, and not overreact because one white person objected to something,” he said, quickly adding that they should not overreact to a Black person’s objection either.

“At the end of the day, we’re one total community and we have to figure out how we work together to make decisions that serve everyone.”

Enrollment in Pinellas district schools is 51% white, 20% Hispanic, 19% Black and 4% Asian, according to state enrollment records. The remaining 6% are students of Native American or Pacific Islander descent or are classified as belonging to two or more races.

North Shore Elementary is about 57% white, 24% Black and 12% Hispanic.

Former St. Petersburg police chief and deputy mayor Goliath Davis first raised the issue of the film’s removal in a March 19 column in the Weekly Challenger. He too criticized the district’s action, calling it a ban, and contended that the policy allowing for such decisions needs more clarity.

He noted that a single complaint can lead to a book or movie being removed pending review, yet the policy sets forth no time frame for considering the challenge and rendering a decision. In the case of “The Bluest Eye,” he said, that has meant censoring the novel for months.

If the decision ultimately is to keep the material, Davis said, “then look at the damage that has been done.”

Davis also questioned the validity of the challenge. Conklin, development director for the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg, has asked for “Ruby Bridges” to be removed from the district’s list of approved films for elementary schools.

Conklin was one of two North Shore parents who declined to let their children watch the movie after the school sent out permission slips, including a link to a trailer, two weeks before showing the film to classes. She did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.

“Think about it. A 6-year-old girl (Ruby Bridges) can go to school every day with armed guards, but second graders can’t learn about it?” Davis said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

School board member Eileen Long has complained about the district’s attempts to ban “The Bluest Eye” and “Ruby Bridges,” and has asked for a list of other materials that might have been pulled during the year. She said she’s getting few answers.

“I agree with Dr. (Ric) Davis,” she said. “We’re going backward.”

The Florida Freedom to Read Project also has its eye on the district. Local parent Raegan Miller, a leader in the statewide organization, offered support for getting “Ruby Bridges” back into full circulation.

“It is distressing to me that one parent has, again, been able to have a resource removed from our schools when the vast majority of parents consented to their children seeing the film,” Miller said.

The district has not yet scheduled times to review either “Ruby Bridges” or “The Bluest Eye.”
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Danoff
How is this the same group that complains about taking down statues?
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Noting that the Venn diagram in which the two positions are represented may not be a perfect circle, I'd suggest that any overlap is due to a lack of principles. If the position represented by an overlap isn't a principled one, it has to be a bigoted one.
 
Thou art not supposed to bear false witness against thy neighbour. But it's okay, since they don't know of any gay people living next door to the (perhaps inaptly geographically situated) Loveland school.
 
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Northstar
Lazzaro was found guilty, clearly he was a RINO though so he doesn't count!

www.cbsnews.com

Anton Lazzaro found guilty on all charges of sex trafficking underage girls

Anton Lazzaro, a former GOP donor, has been found guilty of sex trafficking underage girls.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com
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The RINOs are calling from inside the house.
TexRex
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"It's impossible to say what the world looks like [without slavery]. Actually we can say it would be worse."

Mental illness.
 
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This moron purports to not co-parent with the government or anyone else but wants to use government force to weigh the wants and wills of some against the rights of others. There is no better a representation of "parents' rights" conservatives.

Edit: I've addressed this before, but I say "wants and wills" because there is no right to not be offended.
 
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Of course connie rats think federal judges nominated by Republican presidents should disregard law in favor of conservative ideology. I've never suspected otherwise, but all pretense has been abandoned.

 
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reason.com

Conservative Florida lawmakers want to expand LGBT censorship to charter schools

A new bill makes a mockery of parents’ rights, school choice, and educational freedom.
reason.com reason.com
A bill making its way through Florida's Legislature would expand the state's censorship of discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity all the way up through eighth grade and, in addition, would specify that charter schools are included in the ban.

This attack on educational freedom comes just days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law H.B. 1, which expanded school choice to all Florida students. It's a reminder that when some (but not all) conservatives and Republicans talk about "school choice" and "parents' rights," they have a limited view of what those choices should be and which parents should have rights.

H.B. 1069, which passed the state's House on Friday, would staple some new rules onto H.B. 1557, the law passed in 2022 that censored any discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and restricted it in other grades. H.B. 1069 expands the censorship from pre-K all the way up to eighth grade. And while proponents of this type of legislation have insisted that this is all about giving parents control over their children's education, one simple line of text will undermine that entire argument if this bill is signed into law: "This subparagraph applies to charter schools."

All of this is in addition to the latest move by the state's Department of Education to implement regulations that apply a greater level of censorship to all discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades.

What makes charter schools so valuable is that they give families the freedom to pursue education that meets their children's needs and is free from overly restrictive, one-size-fits-all lesson plans. Families can find charter schools that cater to special needs children or that only focus on certain subjects. There are also a small number of charter schools designed for families with LGBT parents or children.

H.B. 1069 essentially declares that certain types of families will be denied the educational freedom offered by charter schools by censoring which topics can be taught. Politicians who actually believe in "parents' rights" and school choice should be very much opposed to this ban. If parents want their children to learn about LGBT issues in schools, it should not be for a group of conservatives in Tallahassee to tell them no.

In a similar vein, another part of H.B. 1069 undermines the educational choices of families by amending the process of objecting to and removing books from schools. The bill requires that any book or material that is the subject of a removal request by a parent be removed and unavailable to students within five days for an investigation. This means the allegedly objectionable material will be unavailable to all students, not just those of the parents who object. The bill also adds a lengthy appeals process that involves bringing in a special magistrate that the school district has to pay for if a parent continues to object. As Reason has pointed out before, these aren't "parents' rights" bills at all. These are "parents' veto" laws that allow some parents to control what other parents' kids have access to. And since the school district will have to pay to bring in a magistrate to fight against these objections, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the easiest thing for a school district to do is just remove anything any parent objects to.

H.B. 1069 passed the House easily Friday by a vote of 77–35, and the Senate version is currently being reviewed by the Fiscal Policy Committee. If the bill passes, it will be a test of DeSantis' actual commitment to school choice. If he signs it into law, he's giving credence to any Democratic or progressive critic that says "school choice" is really a conservative plot to undermine public schools and school unions as a mechanism of control, not freedom. It is taking power away from parents and concentrating it in the hands of conservative lawmakers.
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I'm old enough to remember @Chrunch Houston throwing a bitchfit, insisting that "Don't Say Gay" (a label that itself hilariously triggered a bitchfit from the same connie despite the fact that it's not actually deceitful in the way that the law's official title is) didn't extend beyond the third grade (though its text doesn't actually curtail application beyond the third grade) and that that was appropriate.

It has never been about preserving the rights of parents of children in any grade. It has always been about suppressing discussion on topics disfavored by the state and a segment of its population while completely disregarding the interests of parents and violating the expressive rights of individuals, all without indicating specific, legitimate harm that the effort purports to remedy or prevent.
 


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There's a fantastic point here.
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Rob Tracinski continues:
I think the problem is making it a matter of "the community" in the first place.

I was re-reading recently an old article by Ayn Rand from 1973 (I think) about the Supreme Court decisions on pornography, and she really went off on the "local community standards" idea, which basically empowers small-minded, small-town conformism.

What struck me in retrospect is how much what was then the conservative standard--something can be banned if it's offensive by local community standards--then become the basis for Political Correctness. It's just that now the "local community" is a college campus.

The problem is: a) banning something because it causes "offense," and b) empowering the "local community" to somehow decide that. At any rate, Ayn Rand's article was "Censorship: Local and Express." I'm working on one called "Censorship: Local, Express, and Round-Trip."
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"Community standards" is discussed here largely because of its invocation in one prong of the Miller test for obscenity. It's not great but thankfully that which is deemed to be obscene and as such left unprotected by the First Amendment doesn't hinge on "community standards." It was invoked because the idea that one community may be subject to the wants and wills of another was somehow absurd, but the real absurdity is that the application of "community standards" actually ensures that, but in reverse.

I don't think it's great that Tracinski brings up "Political Correctness" (BOO!!!), though, as it's a connie bogeyman implying violation of expressive rights by groups incapable of actually violating expressive rights absent enforcement by the state.
 
Joey D
Humboldt%20Penguins%20at%20ZSL%20London%20Zoo%20celebrate%20Pride.jpg


No really

I mean if zoology is pornographic, then I'm going just to go ahead and start ZooHub to capitalize on that market.
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Beastiality is often illegal...but if it's just animals then I think you've got a business plan there bud. After all, farmers tend to be conservative and they've watched more bulls mount and fisted more cows than I ever have that's for sure. They have entire conversations about breeding and don't bat an eye.
 
It's only weird that conservatives fixate on imagery or teachings of acceptance in schools if you don't remember that indoctrination of children is a big part of the conservative ethos. “Give me a child until he is 7, and I will give you the man.” Many of the Christian memes work chiefly through indoctrination of children, and they are acutely aware of this fact and exploit it fully intentionally.

If you want children to continue to view homosexuality or transgender people as "outgroup", make sure they're insulated from it as long as possible. It will seem weird when they finally, regretfully, must be exposed to this when they become adults. At least until they can get the law changed so that nobody can ever be exposed to it, including adults, and it remains in the closet and as "outgroup" as possible for all people.
 
Danoff
conservatives fixate
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Last night a local car guy posted a photo of the swastika flags that Finland got rid of recently and was suggesting that Finland was a bad guy. I mentioned that they started using that symbol in 1918, long before it had negative connotations.

This morning I wake up to him telling me that Finland was an Axis member during WW2. I went OFF on this dude. A grown man my age who doesn't even know basic historic facts summarized in the first paragraph of a Wiki article. Turns out he's pro-Russia also and thinks Russia should take back majority-Russian ethnic areas of Ukraine.

I don't know if he went to school or not but it definitely wasn't the one I went to.

At what point does "free speech" cause damage by spreading falsehoods. Media is making this happen and they're making money off of false information. There's something wrong with that.
 
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I watched that as a kid. Didn't make me weird and my politically conservative parents (not religious) thought it was hilarious. My dad specifically dressed in drag one year for Halloween and other family members have as well.

Come to think of it, while most of my family members definitely vote Repbulican, none of them strike me as a type that would be concerned about this. So who are these people who are concerned about it? None of the suburban Ohio republicans I know give a damn.
 
Danoff
My kids were watching a stupid show on Netflix which portrayed the main character in drag. It made me think of this:

BugBunnyDrag.jpg


Drag wasn't an issue until trans was an issue.
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Bugs frequently made himself up to appear feminine in order to deceive and physically assault a male character. Can you imagine!?
 


It's just inconceivable to this rat bitch that using reproductive rights--specifically deprivation of said rights--as a wedge issue to appease and attract an extremist minority alienates the majority, which invariably includes young voters.

Modern. American. Conservatism. Is. Mental. Illness.
 
Much preferred this Scott Walker. Guess the title of his greatest hit could apply to Delafield's so-called conservatives:

 
Republicans could, I don't know, talk about things that concern younger people. But when the average age of Congress is 60, I can't see them caring or even being able to understand the problems of people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Congressional Republicans seem to think we care about "wokeness" but if I had to take a shot in the dark, I'd say most of us care about not being able to afford a home or are worried about how the climate is changing in such a way that it's going to increase horrific natural disasters. You know, stuff that has to do with our future. The 60 year old person in Congress likely doesn't care about the climate changing because they have the money to get away from it and they'll be dead before it's really an issue.

Democrats sorta of talk about things younger people are interested in, but even then, they're catering to older people as well. The average age of the US is 38, 20 years younger than the average age of Congress.
 
Maybe age limits or at least term limits would help.

I'm not sure though because this twit is younger than me and he doesn't exactly seem to have his finger on the pulse if the replies to likes ratio on his tweet is anything to go by...

Screenshot_20230407_210723_Chrome.jpg
 
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Joey D
Republicans could, I don't know, talk about things that concern younger people. But when the average age of Congress is 60, I can't see them caring or even being able to understand the problems of people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Congressional Republicans seem to think we care about "wokeness" but if I had to take a shot in the dark, I'd say most of us care about not being able to afford a home or are worried about how the climate is changing in such a way that it's going to increase horrific natural disasters. You know, stuff that has to do with our future. The 60 year old person in Congress likely doesn't care about the climate changing because they have the money to get away from it and they'll be dead before it's really an issue.

Democrats sorta of talk about things younger people are interested in, but even then, they're catering to older people as well. The average age of the US is 38, 20 years younger than the average age of Congress.
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It is not just an older Republican thing. The younger ones suck just as much.
 

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