Hundreds of community members attended Tuesday’s Hernando County (Florida) School Board meeting to express their support for a district teacher against whom a complaint was lodged for showing the Disney movie “Strange World” because it has Disney’s first openly gay character, USA Today reports. Board member Shannon Rodriguez reported Winding Waters teacher Jenna Barbee to the state Department of Education for showing the movie, which Barbee says ties in with the planned ecology lesson; the sexuality of the character wasn’t a factor.
More than 100 parents, students and others registered to address the board, which did not have Rodriguez’s complaint on the agenda. Some noted the increasing number of vacant teaching positions; a leader of a local teachers’ union said she was processing around three dozen immediate retirements. A student noted teachers were afraid to address topics from lessons or student questions because they feared getting fired.
One high school student summed up the anger expressed by the community: “You need to listen to us when we say that the rainbow in our classroom is not indoctrinating us, seeing two girls together in a Disney movie is not brainwashing us, and your policies are not protecting us from anything.”