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Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

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Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#301
The law only applies to visual or graphic sexual content. I would hope everyone agrees that providing certain sexual materials to kids of certain age should be a felony. I hope everyone also agrees that sometime before puberty one should get appropriate sex education with approval of parents or guardians or say a judge if parents are proven to be completely unreasonable.

I see the problem of Florida law being too vague and possibly covering benign content like depiction of a kiss. But I also understand that there have been horrible abuses by teachers, like elementary school students being treated to a graphic description of a blow job. Just hope everyone understands there is more to the story than what might be claimed by one side.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Displ...

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so but it's Florida. I don't live in Florida. The majority in Florida must somehow be OK with this and it's their teachers and children. Don't take my nuance to mean that I approve of this or think it's a good idea.

Conceptually, if the government defines the teaching, at what point do the people run the government and at what point does the government run the people? Also, politics in America are way more messy than that. The choice becomes "People you agree 50% with or people you agree 20% with?". I would bet that if this were put to a statewide vote, it would not pass.

The community/voters define the government and the government defines the teaching.

Which entity is more in touch with the wants and needs of Florida voters: Florida's state and local governments or the federal government in Washington?

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also drives families with kids out of Florida to more sane educational operating environments. Florida already has the worst teacher shortage in the nation: https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/01/22/our-child...

> Florida already has the worst teacher shortage in the nation This isn't new. Florida teacher shortage has existed for a long time. It's because Florida doesn't pay their teachers. This isn't likely to change anytime soon because Republicans have had a stranglehold on Florida since 1999, and they are notoriously anti-education.

Florida has a booming economy. Maybe they want to preserve that over becoming "educated" like San Francisco?

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I correctly surmise that you're Canadian? If so, your leader declared a national emergency to squash free speech, banished handguns so you can no longer protect yourself, and cut off political opponents from the financial system. Trying to control the books children can view in an educational environment seems trivial by comparison.

Not that Canadian authoritarianism makes this FL issue any less ridiculous, but since you brought it up, I am kind of amazed that no one in a "modern democracy" (what I thought Canada was aiming for) had any problem with the alarming weaponization of the financial system against anyone who even donated to the trucker protests. In my mind, it was somewhat equivalent to a Republican-controlled US government freezing th…

> Republican-controlled US government freezing the bank accounts of anyone who donated to Planned Parenthood

I'm not familiar with this. Searches yield articles about freezing of Planned Parenthood funding. Could you point me in the right direction for more details?

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"voters" and "people" are two different groups, of which there can be notable difference the harder is it to vote.

How to vote: (1) register, (2) vote. What is difficult about this? If you cannot follow through from 1 -> 2, you really should not vote.

Voter disenfranchisement has been part of the playbook for a long time now.

Take this issue for example - if this passes, and a teacher gets a felony from suggesting a book off of the pre approved list, they probably can't vote anymore.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#306
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classroom libraries are a big deal. Every step taken that makes a teacher's job riskier, less pleasant, or less like what they want to be doing (teaching kids, without having to worry about whether some plainly-positive action is legal), drives good teachers out of the profession.

[flagged]

Dont forget about us crazy libertarians that want Backpack funding of Schools via School Choice.

we clearly want to a "Destroy public education" by making teachers accountable to parents which is a terrible thing according to the teachers union

//sidenote we also want to abolish all public unions (including teachers union) as public sector employees use their union to corrupt the election process in their favor screwing over the tax payer who ends up having no one in their favor in contract talks.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#307

Waiting for some court to rule that public education with these restrictions violates the first amendment.

Pretty sure the people who write these laws are way ahead of you on packing the courts with judges who agree with their positions.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So perhaps you should review what many leading right-wing politicians have been saying for years about teachers, see i.e. Attacks on teachers never ‘as bad as right now’: union chief (2022) https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3621251-attacks... Right-Wing Money Is Greasing the Anti-Teachers Union Skids (2018) \ https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2018/07/13/ri... The Right-Wing Assault on Teachers…

It's unecessarily divisive that criticism on teachers' unions is labeled "right-wing". It's also linguistically dishonest to call policy measures "attacks" and "assaults". Sometimes organizations become so detached from reality and everyday life that minor changes become necessary. But rather than engage with their detractors, the unions seem to sic the media on them.

> It's also linguistically dishonest to call policy measures "attacks" and "assaults"

When "policy measures" include using state violence it's dishonest to not call them "'attacks' and 'assaults'".

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also drives families with kids out of Florida to more sane educational operating environments. Florida already has the worst teacher shortage in the nation: https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/01/22/our-child...

> Florida already has the worst teacher shortage in the nation This isn't new. Florida teacher shortage has existed for a long time. It's because Florida doesn't pay their teachers. This isn't likely to change anytime soon because Republicans have had a stranglehold on Florida since 1999, and they are notoriously anti-education.

It's almost as if they're looking ahead to the next generation and reckoning that educated people are less likely to vote Republican.

Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this Russia's doing? Do you have a source for that claim?

Read as written, it seems like the parent is saying that things like this (felony for providing a child anything but whitelisted books) destabilize the society they occur in, and bad national actors exploit and encourage that instability. Not that Russia directly induced this law.

I just don't get the link to these idiotic policies put into place in places like Florida. Is Russia using Facebook or something to make people there believe dumb shit?
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