3 December 15-21, 2022 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | MusiC | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | ▼ PALM BEACH COUNTY GENDERBLENDER SCHOOL STAFFER ALLEGES RETALIATION FOR BASHING GOP ON TWITTER. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN A Palm Beach County School District employee alleges in a federal lawsuit that she was demoted after she criticized Republicans on social media and questioned the superintendent’s decision to banish “The Genderbread Person,” a school-board-approved sex education poster. “This is an action by Diana Fedderman, a career educator (27 years) in the Palm Beach County School District who in her private life is unabashedly vocal about her progressive political views,” the lawsuit states. “Superin- tendent Michael Burke, a Republican, de- moted her from assistant superintendent in the division of teaching and learning to a do- nothing assignment in a job that had not been staffed for years.” Fedderman is suing the school district and Superintendent Burke on counts for violations of her First Amendment right to free speech and rights under the Whistleblower Act. A few weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis’ De- cember 2021 announcement of the “Stop Woke Act,” which limits how the topic of sys- temic racism is taught in public schools, Fed- derman tweeted, “Republicans are decimating public education. It is time to act. Vote local.” The lawsuit claims Burke called Fedder- man days later when he first learned of her post during his visit to Tallahassee. He alleg- edly informed her the post was a “topic of conversation among legislators,” including Republican State Rep. Mike Caruso, who rep- resents parts of Palm Beach County. “Representative Caruso, Superintendent Burke told Fedderman, had also told him that he was going to take [the] post to Gov. DeSan- tis,” the complaint reads. “While Burke ac- knowledged during the phone call that he could not order Fedderman to take the tweet down, and said that he was not asking her to do so, he mentioned that people reading her tweets were conflating her public and private personas.” Fedderman says she decided to delete the post because she felt “intimidated by the af- ter-hours phone call.” Burke thanked her tak- ing down the tweet, she says. Fedderman’s supervisor later emailed her on May 4, advising that Burke wanted her to im- mediately remove the teaching tool “The Gen- derbread Person” from a sex education class for high school seniors, according to the lawsuit. The poster, which fea- tures a simply drawn gingerbread figure, is designed to teach con- cepts of biological sex, gender identity, attrac- tion, and gender ex- pression. During a March press conference tied to the signing of Flori- da’s Parental Rights in Education Act AKA the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Governor DeSantis held up a Genderbread Person poster superimposed with the title “Found in Florida.” Claiming the poster was being taught to “very young kids,” the governor used it to justify the bill, which prohibits class- room discussions about sexuality and gender identity in public schools before fourth grade. Because the Genderbread Person had been approved by the school board, Fedder- man says she was concerned that removing it from the high school curriculum would vio- late a state law that mandates annual board approval for sex education materials. “I am concerned that the board approved this curriculum, and now we are changing it without the board’s knowledge nor vote. However, I will do as instructed,” Fedderman wrote to her supervisor. At Fedderman’s urging, one of the school district’s attorneys reviewed the request to get rid of the Genderbread Person. Fedder- man claims that although the lawyer agreed the school board should be consulted before making a decision, Burke insisted on the re- moval of the poster from the curriculum. At the end of the school year in June, the lawsuit alleges, Burke dissolved Fedderman’s position and told her she was going to be a middle-school principal, a job she called a “major demotion.” The next day, Fedderman was informed she would instead be assigned to a “director of equity” job, a position that would only be funded for two years through a COVID-19-related grant, leaving her one year short of retirement eligibility, according to the complaint. Days later, the plan changed yet again, and Fedderman was transferred to the role of director of supplementary education services, “a grant-funded position that had not been staffed for approximately a decade and had no duties assigned to it,” the lawsuit alleges. The complaint says the school board approved the package in a 6-1 vote, which included several promotions and a single demotion (for Fedderman). The district said in a statement, “The School District of Palm Beach County does not com- ment specifically on pending litigation, how- ever, we look forward to the facts in this case being presented through the judicial process.” DeSantis and the State of Florida are in the midst of multiple legal battles to keep re- cently passed, controversial education legis- lation in place. While the Parental Rights in Education Act has survived legal challenges in federal court, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued an injunction against the Stop Woke Act last month, on the grounds that it violates the First and Fourth Amendments by banning certain viewpoints in the classroom. [email protected] | RIPTIDE | Figure by the Hues project, via county court records ▼ TALLAHASSEE RUDE AWOKENING DESANTIS TEAM SAYS LOUD PART OUT LOUD. BY TOM FINKEL L ike most Floridians, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ team had a busy week after Thanksgiv- ing, what with eating leftover jellied cran- berry sauce out of the can and flocking the Christmas tree. Oh, and in the gubernatorial gang’s case: appearing in a Tallahassee federal courtroom to defend their boss’ suspension of Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren this past summer. As first reported by Gary Rohrer of Florida Politics (and pretty much only reported by Gary Rohrer), Warren’s attorneys polled DeSantis’ le- gal team and staff, seeking to clarify what their boss means when he invokes the term “woke” — as he so…very…often…does. As Rohrer notes, the question is a valid one given that DeSantis sprinkled in the W- word amid the various Whereases in the ex- ecutive order that planted Warren in the proverbial corner wearing the proverbial dunce cap. “Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communica- tions director, said ‘woke’ was a ‘slang term for activism… progressive activism’ and a general belief in systemic injustices in the country,” Rohrer reported. “Ryan Newman, DeSantis’ general counsel, echoed the part about systemic injustices, specifically re- garding the criminal justice system. “’To me it means someone who believes that there are systemic injustices in the criminal jus- tice system and on that basis they can decline to fully enforce and uphold the law,’ Newman said.” The inquiry came in a still-pending civil case in which Warren is challenging his suspension on First Amendment grounds. Warren was sus- pended by DeSantis in August after pledging not to enforce Florida’s recently passed abor- tion restrictions. “Asked what ‘woke’ means more generally, Newman said ‘it would be the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them,’” according to Rohrer’s report. Newman, Rohrer writes, clarified that DeSantis doesn’t share that particular belief — a point the governor hammered home during his victory speech last month, when he blasted “woke ideology” and declared that “Florida is where woke goes to die.” As one Twitter user aptly pointed out, “It sounds different when you apply his own definition to the slogan[:] ‘Florida: Where addressing systemic injustices in American society goes to die.’” [email protected] GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS THE POSTER, IS DESIGNED TO TEACH CONCEPTS OF BIOLOGICAL SEX, GENDER IDENTITY, ATTRACTION, AND GENDER EXPRESSION. Diana Fedderman claims the Genderbread Person was unceremoniously yanked from a high school curriculum. Loud and clear: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is clear about his “Stop WOKE” agenda — just ask his lawyers. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
