A Florida teacher was fired after he posted a video accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of removing scores of random books from school library shelves.
According to First Coast News, Brian Covey, a substitute teacher at Mandarin Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida, has been fired.
Covey first shared the false story about Florida school books on Jan. 27, claiming that they had removed “every single book” from his classroom.
Since y'all wanna play the "this isn't really happening" game https://t.co/bVUFOXPc6a pic.twitter.com/fUUkJgi5ls
— JagsFanBrian✊🏿✊🏽✊ (@JagsFanBrian) January 27, 2023
On Thursday, he was let go from school.
“Got the ‘your services are no longer needed’ call,” Covey tweeted on Thursday. “Kinda crazy to be gaslit by the school board when their directive to remove classroom libraries is posted online. So if anyone knows of a financial planning & analysis job in Jax I would appreciate the heads up.”
Got the "your services are no longer needed" call.
Kinda crazy to be gaslit by the school board when their directive to remove classroom libraries is posted online.
So if anyone knows of a financial planning & analysis job in Jax I would appreciate the heads up.
— JagsFanBrian✊🏿✊🏽✊ (@JagsFanBrian) February 16, 2023
Duval County Public Schools issued a statement to the media stating that he was released for misrepresenting the facts.
“In a discussion between the district and ESS regarding this individual’s misrepresentation of the books available to students in the school’s library and the disruption this misrepresentation has caused, it was determined that he had violated social media and cell phone policies of his employer. Therefore, ESS determined these policy violations made it necessary to part ways with this individual,” the school wrote.
The situation arose as a result of new state directives to ensure that children are not exposed to inappropriate content in books hidden in schools by radical left-wing activists.
True, the state’s schools were asked to “err on the side of caution” and begin the process of evaluating their books. Duval County school officials acknowledged that the evaluation was ongoing, but they also stated that the teacher’s social media posts were false.
“We did direct teachers to temporarily reduce their classroom library collections to titles that were previously approved while waiting for media specialists to curate a more expansive list of approved titles,” DCPS Superintendent Diana Greene said in a statement, according to First Coast News. “However, at no time should a classroom have been without reading resources.”
It seems logical that if a book review is being conducted, the books must be removed from the shelves to be reviewed. It’s not that all books are being banned, but one has to start somewhere in order to literally review the millions of books in the state’s schools.
Covey is fortunate that he did not face further consequences. According to the Washington Post, those who knowingly violate the new rules face a third-degree felony charge ($5,000 fine and up to five years in prison) for exposing students to inappropriate items deemed “harmful to minors” by the Florida Department of Education.
According to a Florida Department of Education document, the targeted books “predominately appeal to a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest” and are “patently offensive” and “without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”
DeSantis also attacked the teacher’s phony video.
“That video, that was a fake narrative, that was not true,” the governor said on Tuesday according to the Orlando Sentinel. “What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to act like somehow we don’t want books.”
The governor is correct. The left-wing teacher was attempting to portray Republicans in general, and DeSantis in particular, as completely opposed to all books for children. It’s a ridiculous lie, but it’s an important narrative for the left, which hopes to use it to demolish DeSantis before he runs for president in 2024.
