Current, Former Florida Teachers Sue State Education Department Over Pronoun Law
'Fairness and equity'
Florida takes action after transgender student, born male, allegedly assaults girl in school bathroom
The Florida Department of Education will develop rules requiring school districts to notify parents if their children are forced to share bathrooms and locker rooms with students of the opposite sex after an alleged sexual assault of a girl by a transgender student in a Florida public school bathroom was reported.
The incident allegedly occurred on June 20 at Space Coast Jr./Sr. High school in Brevard County, according to a police report shared on Facebook by state Rep. Randy Fine (R). A female student reported that a transgender peer, a male who identifies as female, came into the girls bathroom and "fondled" her breasts.
“We find this allegation deeply disturbing and troubling. Clearly, if Brevard Public Schools had commonsense policies that separate bathrooms and locker rooms by biological sex at birth, this incident would not have been possible,” Alex Lanfranconi, director of communications at the Florida Department of Education, said in a statement given to the Daily Wire Thursday.
“Unfortunately, some districts choose wokeness over the safety of their students,” Lanfranconi continued. “The Florida Department of Education will continue to take all steps within its power to protect parental rights and student safety by developing rules that will notify parents if their children are at risk of exposure to these types of situations.”
Fine first publicized the alleged sexual assault last week in a series of posts on social media. He wrote a letter to the Florida Department of Education requesting "immediate assistance in investigating an alleged sexual assault between a 'transgender girl' and another girl that allegedly took place in the bathroom of Johnson Middle School over the summer."
Brevard Public Schools officials denied the allegation and said no such incident happened at Johnson Middle School.
“There was no attack. No victim, no witness, no parents coming forward, nothing,” school district spokesman Russell Bruhn told the Orlando Sentinel. “Rep. Fine owes our staff at Johnson Middle School an apology for making this baseless allegation.”
Police officers from the Melbourne police department were assigned to investigate the lawmaker's allegation.
However, Fine later clarified that his letter had incorrectly identified the school where the assault allegedly took place.
"The claim as shared to me by parents was correct in all respects, save one: as things went through the game of telephone, it happened at a different school," Fine wrote in an Aug. 18 Facebook post.
"It is with no joy that I share that we now have proof there was a 'transgender' sexual assault incident this summer in Brevard Government Schools," Fine wrote, sharing a case report from the Brevard County sheriff's office.
Names of the students involved in the alleged incident were redacted because they are minors.
According to the report, a female student told the Brevard County sheriff's office that at around 11:45 am on June 20, she went to the girls' bathroom and a transgender student, a male who identifies as female, walked into the bathroom shortly after her. The transgender student began talking to her and then "fondled her breasts against her will and without her permission," the police report said.
The girl informed the sheriff's office she had previously told this transgender student to stop touching her and said she wanted to press charges because she felt "violated." She also said she does not feel comfortable using the same bathroom with the transgender student, according to police.
The transgender student denied touching the girls breasts but admitted to being in the bathroom with her, the report said.
The girl reported the incident to police on June 21. The case report said Space Coast Jr./Sr. High school Vice Principle Andy Papczynski was present when the the transgender student was interviewed by police and knew about the allegations.
School spokesman Russell Bruhn confirmed to the Daily Wire that "the incident at Space Coast Jr./Sr. High School was reported by the school to the Sheriff’s Office, Florida DCF and our Title IX partner.”
“All three investigated the claims and all three closed their cases with no action,” he said. “What was described in the Sheriff’s Office report is an incident that lead to no charges being filed. My quotes were in reference to a false allegation that a student had been raped at a different school.”
Bruhn also told the Daily Wire that school officials were aware of the incident at the time he denied a sexual assault took place at Johnson Middle School, but said they could not discuss the case without "violating FERPA, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act."
“And again, the actual case and the fabricated cases are different,” he said.
Fine blasted school officials for having knowledge of the alleged incident while denying that any sexual assaults took place in school bathrooms.
"We should be able to trust Brevard Government Schools to put our children first. To not hide criminal activity that hurts our children. Brevard Government Schools should have openly and transparently addressed the concerns of these parents. But they refused, and even worse, gaslighted the public when I brought the issue to light," he wrote on Facebook.
"We should not be surprised," he added, "they believe boys should use the girls' bathroom."
Horowitz: Florida Department of Education asks schools to make masking optional in the fall
There is a lot of focus on the 23 states that no longer have mask mandates in place, but the reality is that in all of those states, nearly all of the schools are still forcing children to wear masks for seven hours a day. Thus, the most unscientific and inhumane aspect of the mandate is largely intact in all but the most rural counties of red states. A new directive from the DeSantis administration in Florida aims to make the Sunshine State the first state where children can actually live a normal life again.
In a letter titled, "Planning for the 2021-2022 School Year," Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran told the school districts that it's time to follow the science.
"Upon reviewing the policies of those districts with mandatory face covering policies, reviewing all districts' relevant health data, and factoring in such data points as the percentage of students learning in-person and the relative population of a county (which is often synonymous with a county's community health resources), the data shows us that districts' face covering policies do not impact the spread of the virus… Broad sweeping mandatory face covering policies serve no remaining good at this point in our schools" (emphasis in original).
Indeed, throughout the epidemic, the counties with the mandates actually had more cases per capita than those without mandates.
An analysis by Rational Ground in December tabulated all of the days that various counties had mandates and compared them to the days without the mandates. They found that when counties didhave a mandate in effect, there were 667,239 cases over 3,137 days with an average of 23 cases per 100,000 per day. When counties did nothave a countywide order, there were 438,687 cases over 12,139 days with an average of 22 cases per 100,000 per day. This held true even adjusting for differences in population density.
This particular letter is earth-shattering in that it is the first department of education in the country to actually look at the data on mask-wearing rather than take its efficacy as an article of faith. Moreover, Corcoran recognized in the letter that face coverings are a "personal decision" and should be left to each family.
After conveying the fact that there has been zero proof of tangible benefit from mask-wearing, the letter goes on to remind school districts that mask-wearing for children is not a cost-free social experiment.
"Mandatory face covering policies inhibit peer-to-peer learning in our classrooms and they may also unintentionally create a barrier for students and families who would otherwise choose in-person instruction if such a policy were not in place," wrote Corcoran. "Such policies may also impede instruction in certain cases, especially for students with disabilities and English language learners who benefit from viewing a teacher's face and mouth."
Amen! I would also add that breathing freely without re-inhaling one's own CO2 or wearing a disgusting bacteria trap are also pretty good reasons.
The letter closes by asking all those districts that still have mask mandates to terminate them by next school year.
Once again, Florida leads the way in protecting human rights and our most basic freedoms while following the science.Today's top stories
www.theblaze.com
freebeacon.com