Florida
Ron DeSantis’s Education Policies Leave Florida Teachers Feeling Unsure
Cassie Gibson was educating a unit on slavery final spring to her sixth-grade U.S. historical past class in Polk County, Fla., when she seen a paragraph in a textbook that gave her pause. It mentioned some white Southerners fought abolitionism and defended slavery.
The passage struck her as probably violating a 2022 regulation signed by Florida Gov.
Ron DeSantis
—which he dubbed “Cease the Wrongs to Our Children and Staff (W.O.Ok.E.) Act”—that prohibits, amongst different issues, educating that individuals ought to really feel guilt over previous actions by members of their racial group. She mentioned she nervous what her college students would possibly say concerning the passage at dwelling and the way their dad and mom would possibly react.
“After I noticed that paragraph, I’m like, ‘Does this make white folks really feel dangerous? I can’t do this, proper?’ ” Ms. Gibson mentioned. She opted to not learn or assign it to the category.
Supporters of the governor say the legal guidelines strip away inappropriate materials and prohibit indoctrination.
Matt Woodside, a bodily training and human sexuality instructor in Brevard County, mentioned he doesn’t discover Mr. DeSantis’s insurance policies ambiguous. He mentioned beneath the “Cease W.O.Ok.E. Act,” it’s nice to show about slavery and the civil-rights motion, however not that one group is best than one other.
“I feel there’s numerous misconstruing occurring on what is definitely within the invoice,” Mr. Woodside mentioned.
Mr. DeSantis, a probable 2024 presidential candidate, is pursuing probably the most far-reaching overhaul of a state training system by a governor in many years, coverage analysts say, focusing on what he considers the extreme affect of left-leaning concepts about race, gender and different cultural points in school rooms.
His steady stream of training insurance policies are producing concern, confusion and upheaval amongst educators and directors, with various penalties in colleges throughout the state.
Some educators say they’re now unsure about what to show or learn how to educate it. Some are chopping materials from classes or altering how they method sure subjects to keep away from probably operating afoul of the regulation. Employees are reviewing libraries to take away materials that some dad and mom would possibly discover objectionable. Some professors say they’re amending course syllabi or backing off from educating specific programs.
Spokespeople for Mr. DeSantis and the Division of Schooling didn’t reply to requests for remark. The governor has mentioned public training is usually infused with political agendas and may as a substitute give attention to educational excellence.
Supporters of Mr. DeSantis’s insurance policies say his adjustments are essential to make school rooms extra skilled and targeted on educational achievement.
“If it has made academics take a second and actually ask themselves, ‘Is that this an applicable technique to behave in my classroom?’ or ‘Is that this applicable data to share with my college students?’ then good,” mentioned Tiffany Justice, co-founder of the conservative group Mothers for Liberty.
The “Cease W.O.Ok.E. Act” bans instruction on vital race idea and different ideas in colleges and universities, and contains necessities to show about slavery and different points of Black historical past. It performed a job in Mr. DeSantis’s latest struggle with the Faculty Board over his choice to ban a brand new Superior Placement class on African-American research, which he mentioned included elements of vital race idea. Earlier this month, he floated the prospect of eliminating all AP courses within the state.
Mr. DeSantis mentioned the New Faculty of Florida, a public liberal-arts establishment in Sarasota, has a left-wing ideological focus that’s out of contact with the state’s values and final month named six new members to its board of trustees, which rapidly fired the president and superior a plan to shut its variety workplace.
On the College of South Florida, a public college that’s a part of the state system, the School Senate known as a web-based assembly earlier this month presenting slides, reviewed by The Wall Road Journal, that highlighted considerations concerning the results of the governor’s insurance policies. Amongst them: “school self-censoring,” “hostile work setting,” and “interfering with classroom local weather.”
At St. Johns River State Faculty, which has three campuses in northern Florida, political-science professor James Maggio mentioned an administrator known as him final 12 months to say a pupil’s guardian had complained about his comment in a U.S. Federal Authorities class that slavery was the principle explanation for the Civil Warfare.
Directors urged Dr. Maggio educate the topic in a approach that didn’t make college students really feel uncomfortable, similar to highlighting further elements like states’ rights and financial programs, he mentioned.
In January, Dr. Maggio mentioned, directors informed him it might assist the varsity if he eliminated sure phrases from a course syllabus, together with “systemic racism,” “queer idea,” and “Southern technique,” which he did. He mentioned he plans to proceed educating such ideas however with out citing their names.
“I really like my job and respect my bosses, nevertheless it undoubtedly looks like I’m on borrowed time,” Dr. Maggio mentioned. The school didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Final 12 months, Mr. DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Schooling regulation—dubbed the “Don’t Say Homosexual” laws by opponents—which forbids classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identification by way of third grade and bans it in later grades if not age-appropriate. Some academics mentioned the regulation’s wording is so broad that it’s onerous to know what’s restricted, suppressing dialogue consequently.
A subsequent rule by the State Board of Schooling established that violations of that regulation and the “Cease W.O.Ok.E. Act,” formally titled the Particular person Freedom regulation, might trigger educators to lose their educating certificates. That hasn’t occurred up to now, in accordance with the state academics union, however many educators say they’re afraid for his or her jobs.
One other 2022 regulation Mr. DeSantis signed requires college districts to permit dad and mom to see all classroom studying lists and library books, and provides them the chance to object, and to have all such supplies reviewed by an worker with a media specialist certificates. The measure has generated uncertainty about what’s now permissible, academics and directors say.
No less than 20 college districts have eradicated some books from school rooms or libraries, in accordance with information compiled by the Florida Freedom to Learn Undertaking, a nonprofit fashioned by Florida dad and mom who oppose limits on studying supplies and which tracks adjustments to studying supplies in public colleges. Faculty officers in Manatee and Duval counties instructed academics to place books that haven’t been reviewed and accepted by the district in storage or cowl them up on cabinets till they could possibly be reviewed. The Pinellas County college district is dealing with blowback from college students and fogeys for eradicating Toni Morrison’s novel “The Bluest Eye” from colleges.
Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Occasions/ZUMA Press; Tina Russell for The Wall Road Journal
“We’re eradicating our books as a result of we’re afraid,” mentioned Alexis Underwood, an English and studying instructor in Bay County. She is worried about state coaching supplies warning that anybody who distributes sexually specific materials dangerous to minors could possibly be charged with a third-degree felony, and advising college employees to “err on the facet of warning” in choosing library books.
This college 12 months, Ms. Underwood dropped from her instruction a guide titled “Brothers in Arms,” as a result of it incorporates depictions of gang violence. The title resonates with some college students, she mentioned, however she nervous {that a} portrayal of the capturing of a Hispanic little one within the guide would possibly violate a portion of the Particular person Freedom regulation that forbids inflicting psychological misery to folks based mostly on their race.
The Hillsborough County college district is attempting to handle the state Schooling Division’s view that the district’s racial-equity coverage doesn’t seem to adjust to the Particular person Freedom regulation. In a November letter, a state official flagged the coverage’s objective assertion, which incorporates confronting “institutional racism.”
At a January work session, college board members debated whether or not to chop the assertion. The board’s lawyer, Jim Porter, informed members the regulation doesn’t point out institutional racism and that they may push again towards the state. However he cautioned that the governor might use his energy to take away them from workplace, and he has since mentioned division legal professionals urged the district overview your complete coverage.
“It’s inflicting full chaos in our district from attempting to continuously keep abreast and keep throughout the regulation,” mentioned board member Jessica Vaughn.
In larger training, a regulation signed by Mr. DeSantis in 2021 authorizes college students to videotape professors in school rooms and requires universities to conduct annual surveys of scholars and staff to evaluate whether or not they be happy to specific their viewpoints. A invoice he signed in 2022 penalizes any school with a substantiated violation of the Particular person Freedom regulation by making the establishment ineligible for efficiency funding the next 12 months.
The governor is now backing a invoice for the legislative session beginning in March that may tighten overview of school tenure and mandate core school programs be rooted in Western civilization. The invoice would bar larger training establishments from supporting applications “that espouse variety, fairness, and inclusion or Important Race Idea rhetoric,” and would disallow majors or minors in CRT, Gender Research or Intersectionality—the idea that racism, sexism and different types of discrimination compound one another’s results.
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The invoice additionally states basic training core courses wouldn’t be permitted to show identification politics or outline “American historical past as opposite to the creation of a brand new nation based mostly on common rules said within the Declaration of Independence.”
Given the warmth DEI applications are taking, Frank Fernandez, an assistant professor of upper training administration and coverage on the College of Florida in Gainesville, mentioned he determined towards educating programs this spring on variety and authorized points in larger training. An adjunct professor taught the authorized course as a substitute, and the variety course merely wasn’t supplied.
When the school of training sought to fill an open school place final 12 months, it sought to draw a nationwide rising star within the subject by making her a sexy provide, however she declined and accepted a place in one other state, mentioned Dr. Fernandez, who was a part of the search course of.
Her rationalization, he mentioned: “There’s too many unknowns, it’s too chaotic, it’s too unsure what the longer term is in Florida.”
Write to Arian Campo-Flores at arian.campo-flores@dowjones.com, Scott Calvert at scott.calvert@wsj.com and Ben Chapman at ben.chapman@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Firm, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Florida
The latest in the case of the Florida man charged in estranged wife’s disappearance in Spain
MIAMI — A federal judge ordered the Florida man charged with his estranged wife’s disappearance in Spain held without bond on Friday, rejecting his lawyer’s argument that the prosecution case is entirely circumstantial and shouldn’t be tried in the United States.
Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres said the decision to hold David Knezevich until trial was “a close call,” but he said the Fort Lauderdale business owner’s wealth and close ties to his native Serbia make him a potential flight risk even if he was required to post a $1 million bond, wear an ankle bracelet and surrender his passport. Knezevich and his wife are both naturalized U.S. citizens — she is from Colombia.
Knezevich, 36, was arrested by the FBI last weekend at Miami International Airport and charged with kidnapping. His 40-year-old wife, Ana Knezevich, disappeared Feb. 2 after a man in a motorcycle helmet spraypainted the lens of a security camera outside of her Madrid apartment. She had moved there from Florida late last year after their split.
Torres’ decision came after a contentious two-hour hearing during which federal prosecutor Lacee Monk and defense attorney Jayne Weintraub sparred over just how strong the government’s case is against Knezevich and whether the U.S. has jurisdiction to try an alleged crime that happened in Europe.
Monk told Torres that prosecutors believe Ana is dead and that the FBI and Spain’s national police have substantial evidence that Knezevich is behind his wife’s disappearance, which happened five weeks after she left him and moved to Madrid.
She said the couple had been going through a nasty divorce after 13 years of marriage, fighting over how to split a substantial fortune they had amassed from their computer firm and real estate investments. He didn’t want her to have an equal share, Monk said.
Monk said Knezevich flew to Turkey from Miami six days before Ana’s disappearance, then immediately traveled the 600 miles to his native Serbia — she said he was covering his tracks. There, he rented a Peugeot automobile.
On Feb. 2, security video shows him 1,600 miles from Serbia in a Madrid hardware store using cash to buy duct tape and the same brand of spray paint the man in the motorcycle helmet used on the security camera, Monk said. His cellphone connected to Facebook from Madrid. The man in the motorcycle helmet is the same height and has the same eyebrows as Knezevich, she said.
License plates that were stolen in Madrid in that period were spotted by police plate readers both near a motorcycle shop where an identical helmet was purchased and on Ana’s street the night she disappeared. Hours after the helmeted man left the apartment, a Peugeot identical to the one Knezevich rented and sporting the stolen plates was recorded going through a toll booth near Madrid. The driver could not be seen because the windows were tinted.
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The morning after his wife disappeared, Knezevich texted a Colombian woman he met on a dating app to translate into “perfect Colombian” Spanish two English messages, Monk said. After she sent those back, two of Ana’s friends received those exact messages from her cellphone. They said she was going off with a man she had just met, something they say she would have never done. Monk said that proves Knezevich had his wife’s cellphone.
Finally, when Knezevich returned the Peugeot to the rental agency five weeks later, it had been driven 4,800 miles, its windows had been tinted, two identifying stickers had been removed and there was evidence the license plate had been removed and then put back.
She said Knezevich has a strong incentive to flee as he is looking at a potential life sentence if convicted of kidnapping and death if it can be be shown his wife has been killed.
But Weintraub said the government’s case is “built on assumptions.” She denied that the couple’s split was acrimonious and questioned FBI agent Alexandria Montilla extensively about the investigation, trying to poke holes in the government’s theory, admitting she sometimes crossed into “snarkiness.”
For example, Montilla said the only items missing from Ana’s apartment were her laptop and cellphone. Weintraub said perhaps she took a change of clothing, which wouldn’t be obvious, and ran off with a man. When Montilla said unidentified blood was found in Ana’s apartment and is being tested, Weintraub asked why that would take three months.
When Montilla said Spanish police had interviewed all the men Ana had dated since arriving in Spain, Weintraub asked how they would know there wasn’t someone else.
She said Ana had a history of mental illness and had talked of suicide. Weintraub posited that Ana perhaps ran off “on a mental health holiday” and would soon return “with whomever she’s with” — a suggestion that caused Ana’s relatives in the gallery to noticeably stir.
Weintraub also argued there is no evidence that Ana’s disappearance was forced, an essential component of a kidnapping charge.
“And there never will be,” she said.
She then questioned whether the U.S. government even has jurisdiction. Monk argued that under revisions made to the federal kidnapping law in 2006, the U.S. can charge someone if the offender engaged in “interstate or foreign commerce” to commit the crime. Weintraub called that a stretch.
Torres agreed that Weintraub will be able to mount a substantial defense, but the prosecution does have sufficient evidence to charge her client and he is flight risk. He invited Weintraub to appeal his decision. She did not respond.
By TERRY SPENCER, Associated Press
Florida
Storms slam parts of Florida. Tampa Bay likely to stay hot and dry.
Powerful storms with damaging high winds threatened several states in the Southeast early Friday, as residents elsewhere in the U.S. cleared debris from deadly severe weather that produced twisters in Michigan, Tennessee and other states.
Storms rolled into Tallahassee, where numerous trees were toppled around the state’s capital city, authorities said Friday. Wind gusts of 71 mph were recorded by a weather station near the State Capitol Complex, the National Weather Service reported. Florida State University announced its campuses in Tallahassee were closed Friday due to the severe weather. Nonessential personnel, students and visitors should avoid campuses in Tallahassee until further notice, the school said in a social media post.
The city of Tallahassee said on the X social medial platform that “possible tornadic activity” caused the widespread damage in the Florida capital, especially to electric lines and numerous downed trees. The city said more than 66,000 customers are without electric service and 11 substations were damaged by the storm.
“Restoration will possibly take through the weekend,” the announcement said.
Strong thunderstorms also were expected in Alabama near the Florida panhandle, where gusty winds could knock down tree limbs, the weather service said.
The severe weather is not likely to make it to the Tampa Bay area, where temperatures are starting to feel summer-like. Highs on Friday were expected to reach around 90 on Friday afternoon and rain chances were only at 20%, according to Spectrum Bay News 9.
Weekend weather should be similarly hot with with the chance of rain slim to none. However, rain chances increase to 30% on Monday and 50% on Tuesday, according to the forecast.
Though Tampa Bay will likely be spared from severe weather, parts of the rest of the state and nation were coping with storm damage.
In Mississippi’s capital city of Jackson, authorities on Friday were asking residents to conserve water after a power outage at one of its major water treatment plants. JXN Water, the local water utility, said in a statement that customers can expect reduced water pressure as workers assess damages due to storms that rolled through the region overnight. The weather service said Hickory Hills and surrounding areas near the coast were likely to get severe weather Friday morning and that hail with the potential to damage vehicles was expected.
More than 320,000 homes and businesses across the South, from Mississippi to North Carolina, were without electricity Friday morning, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us. More than half in Florida, where lights and air conditioning were out for more than 180,000 customers.
Several tornado warnings and watches were issued by the National Weather Service on Friday morning, but were lifted by midday as the threat shifted to damaging high winds. Since Monday, 39 states have been under threat of severe weather and at least four people have died. On Wednesday and Thursday, about 220 million people were under some sort of severe weather risk, said Matthew Elliott, a Storm Prediction Center forecaster.
The weather comes on the heels of a stormy April in which the U.S. had 300 confirmed tornadoes, the second-most on record for the month and the most since 2011.
A storm was blamed for killing a 22-year-old man in a car in Claiborne County, north of Knoxville, officials said. A second person was killed south of Nashville in Columbia, the seat of Maury County, where officials said a tornado with 140 mph winds damaged or destroyed more than 100 homes.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said the woman who died in Maury County was in a mobile home that was thrown several feet into a wooded area. Lee visited emergency managers and Tennessee Department of Transportation officials in the storm-stricken area Thursday.
Torrential rains led to a flash flood emergency and water rescues northeast of Nashville, and the weather service issued a tornado emergency, its highest alert level, for nearby areas.
A 10-year-old boy was seriously injured in Christiana, southeast of Nashville, when he got caught in a storm drain and swept under streets while playing with other children as adults cleared debris, his father, Rutherford County Schools Superintendent Jimmy Sullivan, posted on social media.
The boy, Asher, emerged in a drainage ditch and survived after being given CPR, “but the damage is substantial,” Sullivan posted on Facebook, asking for prayers.
“Asher needs a miracle,” Sullivan wrote.
Dozens of people gathered at the school district’s offices for a prayer vigil Thursday. They bowed their heads and closed their eyes in prayer, and they sang “Amazing Grace” together.
Schools were closed Thursday and Friday in Rutherford and Maury. In Georgia, some districts north of Atlanta canceled in-person classes or delayed start times because of storm damage overnight that included fallen trees on houses and vehicles around Clarkesville. No injuries were reported there.
Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring.
Tampa Bay Times staff writer Chris Tisch contributed to this report.
Florida
GRAPHIC: Florida man recovering after shark attack at a Bahamas marina
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man who fell off a fishing boat last month at a marina in the Bahamas and was attacked by a shark is recovering.
Marlin Wakeman, 24, of Stuart, said during a Thursday news conference at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach that he’d be returning to the Bahamas and the water as soon as possible.
“I may have some nightmares here or there, but I’ll be all right,” Wakeman said.
WARNING: The video contains images that some may find disturbing.
Wakeman was at the Flying Fish Marina in Long Island on April 26 when he tried to jump to the docked boat he was working on. He said at least 20 sharks swim around the marina at any given time because they’re attracted to the discarded fish carcasses. Wakeman slipped and fell into the shark-infested water, and he was bit on the leg seconds later by what he believes was a Caribbean reef shark. Another shark hit him on the shoulder before he could get out of the water.
Wakeman said the boat’s captain tied a tourniquet on his leg before he was taken to a clinic. He was later flown to Florida for surgery at St. Mary’s.
Dr. Robert Borrego said the shark punctured Wakeman’s kneecap and just missed an artery. The trauma surgeon estimated the shark to be about 7 feet (2 meters) long, based on the size of the bite mark.
Borrego said he expects Wakeman to make a full recovery.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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