The district strives to “provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for every student, employee and family,” the statement said.
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"The damage that was done by scraping them down was far worse than just never having them in the first place."
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In a statement, the district said that it does not retaliate against employees for expressing their personal viewpoints but district policy “prohibits teachers from using the classroom to transmit their personal beliefs.” The district declined to comment on Stonecipher’s situation or other personnel matters. “Ultimately, those same things that made us very strong supporters for the LGBTQ students are the things that got us pulled from school,” Stonecipher said of her case and another teacher who has also been removed. Last month, she was notified that the district plans to terminate her contract. According to her personnel file, which Stonecipher shared with NBC News, the district’s human resources office believed that Stonecipher had called MacArthur’s principal “homophobic,” which Stonecipher denies, and that she made colleagues uncomfortable when she shared her opinion about LGBTQ issues. Stonecipher, who also advised the student newspaper, believes she was removed because she has been outspoken in advocating for LGBTQ children and encouraging journalism students to investigate the sticker removal. “The damage that was done by scraping them down was far worse than just never having them in the first place,” said Rachel Stonecipher, an English and journalism teacher, and another of the GSA sponsors, who was placed on administrative leave in September and barred from communicating with teachers or students. In August, the administration required that all the stickers come down, later explaining in a statement to NBC News that decorations in classrooms, hallways or offices must be “curriculum driven and neutral in viewpoint” to “ensure that all students feel safe regardless of background or identity.” It all started with teachers posting small rainbow stickers - long a symbol of the gay pride movement - outside their classrooms to show students that they were LGBTQ allies. “They’re not going to come out outright and say, ‘Don’t say gay,’” she said of the school administration, “but they’re going to make it as difficult as possible for you to be allowed to express yourself or even learn about how you feel, who you are and your identity.” Latin, a dance instructor, said she plans to resign after this school year over the district’s handling of the issue. If Crist wins the Democratic nomination and loses to DeSantis in the fall, he will have lost state-wide races in Florida as a Republican, Democrat, and independent.Ĭhristina Pushaw, DeSantis's press secretary, poked fun at Crist's web store on Twitter by quipping that she is "disappointed that there aren’t any ‘Latinx for Crist’ bumper stickers."Ĭrist did not return a request for comment.“It’s like they’re being shadow-banned,” Christine Latin, one of five faculty sponsors of the GSA at MacArthur, said of the student group. The New Republic called Crist "a man with no convictions." Formerly seen as a rising star in the Republican Party, Crist became an independent in 2010 and swapped his affiliation to Democratic in 2012. Political consultant Mike Madrid told Axios that "as Democrats start to focus more on white, cultural, progressive cultural issues, they're losing the fastest segment of the non-college-educated population, and that's Latinos."Ĭritics of Crist, who served as governor of Florida from 2007 t0 2011, have accused him of flip-flopping in politics. Analysts have pointed to the Democratic Party’s leftward swing on social issues as a factor in the party’s hemorrhaging of Hispanic supporters. Support for Democrats among Florida Latinos has plummeted in recent election cycles. The congressman also sells a button alluding to the "Don’t Say Gay" bill, a misnomer originating from false claims made by progressive activists regarding a parental rights bill passed by Florida.Ĭrist’s Spanish webpage contains a handful of generic campaign items with messages translated into Spanish.
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Crist offers two stickers in English, one with a transgender flag and another with a gay pride flag, featuring his campaign logo. On the " En Español" page, however, no such merchandise is present. The front page of Crist’s campaign web store prominently features a number of gay and transgender-themed items. Charlie Crist, a Democratic congressman campaigning to unseat Florida governor Ron DeSantis (R.) in November, offers pride-themed items for sale on the English language version of his website but offers none on the Spanish version.