Pinellas County education is getting dragged into a ‘medieval inquisitors’ dungeon’
Undermining education
On book bans, Pinellas school leaders need a bravery lesson from students | Feb. 17
Times columnist Stephanie Hayes wrote an epic rebuke to the Pinellas County School Board. School board members Dawn Peters and Stephanie Meyer inflict their own conspicuous prejudices on tens of thousands of Pinellas County students and parents, who obviously want much, much better and more from their education. Nutty quasi-seminaries and madrassas are the places for the sex-obsessed martinet claque — not our public schools, with their historic unifying and educating mission.
Our national fate depends on the teaching of facts, including sometimes bitter facts, not dismembered by the fixed, ever wide-eyed and spittle-lipped manias of frenzied, narrow-minded prigs and Puritans trapped in amber. Our vaunted school superintendent Kevin Hendrick has already blinked decisively. At this point, Hendrick has proven himself deeply expendable. It’s like the anti-fluoride ragers from the Pinellas County Commission a decade ago have now captured our kids’ education, but worse. These school board members will wreck our kids’ education for a generation if not ousted at the next opportunity.
These moves undermine the quality of education that got us to the apex of power and education in the world, and now our school system is being dragged into some sort of medieval inquisitors’ dungeon. This must be stopped.
Steve Douglas, St. Petersburg
Banned books are easy to find
On book bans, Pinellas school leaders need a bravery lesson from students | Feb. 17
Once again, the Tampa Bay Times is publishing primarily articles and opinions about banning books at public school libraries that only present one side of the story. The ban is nothing like those implemented by Nazi Germany.
As has been said before, if you want your children to read any of the banned material, go to the public library or even form a club of like-minded persons, buy the books and share them. And then get together and discuss them, if you are so inclined. Who knows? Maybe this will work for the benefit of all society.
Tom Craig, Riverview
They are coming for the children’s classics
On book bans, Pinellas school leaders need a bravery lesson from students | Feb. 17
The insanity of “wokeism” now extends to rewriting Roald Dahl’s children’s classic “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Censoring from the left is no more legitimate than from the right. Yes, parents should have the right to monitor what books their children read, not what books are available to read. Banning books is the weapon of dictators. Authors are free to write and even to offend. I am free to choose not to read. Shame on the thought police on both extremes. They are equal threats to our democracy.
Carl L. Zielonka, Tampa
Hail a free press
On book bans, Pinellas school leaders need a bravery lesson from students | Feb. 17
I want to thank Tampa Bay Times’ Stephanie Hayes for another courageous column exposing book banning and other horrendous decisions made by the DeSantis administration. We no longer have many checks and balances in this state. The governor seems to control all three branches of government. Thankfully, we still have a free press where writers like Hayes can voice the concerns that many of us have.
John Bonano, Gulfport
Historical facts, please
A battle over the future of education, civil rights | Feb. 21
Rev. Al Sharpton is right. History is fact based and primary resources reveal those facts. Trying to change those facts because they are refuted or disliked is not education. The only one who needs to be awakened to this is the GOP legislature and the Florida governor. First-class education is at risk and students are going to pay the price without those classes that earn them college credit for free. Challenging curriculum creates problem solvers and no indoctrination is involved. Wake up, governor. All I see is that you and the GOP are spewing “woke” ideology, not historical facts.
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Carol Hess, Hudson
“Awoken” the history-challenged
Dear Gov. Ron DeSantis:
If it were not for “woke” people in American history — including your Italian forbearers and those of other immigrant minorities — we would still be living in slum tenements as second-class citizens.
John Kichi, Sun City Center
The ‘free state’ of Florida?
I just received a summons for jury duty. It recommends business attire, and it says no shorts. I am a cabinet maker and my business attire is a T-shirt and shorts and steel-toed shoes. Not allowing me to wear shorts is an infringement on my freedom. So is the minimal pay for performing jury duty, which often works out to be well below Florida’s minimum wage. Gov. Ron DeSantis needs to fix this or stop saying that Florida is a free state.
Dave Hinz, Clearwater