The bigoted, vengeful firing of Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt will deeply stain Flagler County’s reputation for business or great schools: Neither the three school board members nor the chamber of commerce who orchestrated the ouster could find a single reason to fire her, fabrications aside. Malevolence was enough.
Rights & Liberties
Anti-Trans ‘Bathroom Ban’ Is Quickly Moving Through Florida Legislature
Florida could be next in line to criminalize transgender adults who intentionally enter a restroom or changing facility opposite their sex at birth, according to two bills hastily moving through the Legislature. Similar bathroom bans are advancing through legislatures around the country.
No Overt Prayers: Palm Coast Council Will Stick With Moment of Silence at Meetings to Avoid Theatrics
Rejecting exhortations from nearly two dozen people, there will be no overt, vocal prayer at Palm Coast City Council meetings, though room for prayer in all forms and for all creeds will continue, as it always has, for individuals who choose to pray, whether overtly before meetings or quietly during meetings or during the moment of silence.
After Clearing Gallery of Public, Florida Senate Passes 6-Week Abortion Limit
The bill touched off heavy debate Monday that was interrupted by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, ordering the clearing of the Senate seating gallery because of repeated outbursts from audience members opposed to the bill.
I Served on Flagler’s School District Book Review Committee, Only to Be Silenced
One of 14 members appointed by the Flagler school administration to a district-level committee to review the challenge to Amy Reed’s “The Nowhere Girls” describes the experience of being part of a 14-0 decision to retain the book, only to be overruled by the superintendent, who banned the book.
Sheriff Launches Voluntary Surveillance Camera Registry Tapping Private Homes, Businesses and Agencies
The camera registry is an online portal for citizens to register their security cameras in order to help solve crimes in the community. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office is hoping that citizens will register their cameras and help create a community-wide public safety ecosystem.
Skirting Ban, FPC Committee Votes to ‘Weed’ Tilt, With Same Result: the Book Is Removed
A seven-member committee reviewing a challenge of Ellen Hopkins’s “Tilt” unanimously voted this morning to remove the book from circulation at the Flagler Palm Coast High School library, but not on challenged grounds. The committee found the book did not meet criteria to be banned, but met criteria to be “weeded,” as outdated.
Flagler School Board Keeps Sold on School Library Shelves in Unprecedented 3-2 Vote
The Flagler County School Board this evening voted 3-2 to keep “Sold,” the novel in verse by Patricia McCormick, on the shelves of Flagler County school’s high school libraries. The novel is written from the perspective of a 13-year-old girl trafficked to a prostitution house in India.
Appeal to Supreme Court for Stay of Gaskin Execution Cites FlaglerLive Article on Juror’s Reversal
Among other arguments, Gaskin’s lawyers cite a March 15 FlaglerLive article in which Janet Valentine, one of the 12 jurors at Gaskin’s 1990 trial, saying she regrets being part of the 8-4 votes recommending his death. Valentine would go on to be Flagler County’s school superintendent between 2010 and 2014.
Drowning Public Schools in the Bathtub to Promote GOP Ideology
The slow financial strangling and demonization of public schools have set the stage for the direct infusion of millions and eventually billions of taxpayer dollars into the private sector.