Two years after former President Donald Trump called for a ban on TikTok, Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio this week introduced legislation that would impose a national ban on the Chinese-owned social media platform that has become immensely popular with young Americans.
First Amendment
2,000 Articles, 2 Million Words, Countless Revelations in ’22: Help FlaglerLive Keep You Richly Informed in ’23
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Drag Shows Are Now A Right-Wing Target Amid Rising Extremism
Propagating hate and violence against queer people, lawmakers and right-wing figures are misrepresenting what happens at all-ages drag performances, including literacy events. This is occurring in the wake of a spate of legislative bills targeting LGBTQ people.
State Panel Developing Guidelines on Book Bans for School Librarians May Be at an Impasse
A new law that intensifies scrutiny of school library books requires school boards to adopt procedures that provide for the “regular removal or discontinuance” of books from media centers based on factors such as alignment with state academic standards. The panel designated to develop the training playbook for librarians is mired in disagreement, with a Jan. 1 deadline looming.
DeSantis’s New Target: Restricting Demonstrations at State Capitol in Name of Protecting Children
The state Department of Management Service’s proposal, in part, seeks to prohibit actions or displays that are “harmful” to children from taking place in the Capitol. The DeSantis Administration proposal is the latest in a series of measures restricting protest and speech.
In Flagler Schools, New Regime of Book Challenges Is Laborious, Subjective and Fraught With Uncertainties
Gray areas of uncertainty, anxiety, subjectivity and a gaping lack of state direction are shading the new regime of serial book challenges and book bans in the Flagler school district as the state Department of Education has yet to issue directions on library holdings.
Appeals Court Upholds School Board Speech Rules in Defeat for Moms for Liberty, For Now
A federal appeals court has rejected an attempt by a chapter of the conservative group Moms for Liberty to block restrictions that the Brevard County School Board placed on public participation at board meetings. The Brevard rules are almost identical to those of the Flagler County School Boards, which had been at the center of controversy two summers ago.
Citing Orwell, Federal Judge Calls DeSantis’s ‘Stop Woke Act’ Unconstitutional Muzzling of Academic Freedom
Calling the state’s approach “positively dystopian,” a federal judge on Thursday blocked a law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that restricts the way race-related concepts can be taught in universities. The law is “antithetical to academic freedom and has cast a leaden pall of orthodoxy over Florida’s state universities,” Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in the 139-page ruling.
In latest Intrusion on Academic Freedom, Tenure Review Could Be Tied to How Professors Teach Race
A controversial law designed to restrict the way certain race-related topics can be taught in Florida classrooms could factor into a new tenure-review process for university professors, under a proposal that higher-education officials will consider next week.
Flagler Schools Have Been Quietly Banning or ‘Removing’ Many Books Since Summer in Bow to ‘Moms for Liberty’
The school district has been quietly and steadily banning books from library shelves at Flagler Palm Coast and Matanzas High, and at Indian Trails and Buddy Taylor middle schools since summer, FlaglerLive has found, with every title part of a list of challenges from just three members of the group known as “Moms for Liberty.” There is no indication that the challengers are reading the books, but they have been asked to join the district’s review committee.