A Florida elementary school teacher is reportedly being investigated for showing her students a Disney movie in which a male secondary character has a crush on a boy.
“The film was part of the curriculum. At that time, it was about earth sciences and ecosystems and how they interact with each other. Plants, humans, animals. So this film was perfect,” defended teacher Jenna Barbee, in a video on TikTok reported by “The Guardian” on Sunday.
The woman, who teaches a group of students aged 10 and 11, said she would have presented the animated film “Avalonia, the strange journey” to her students after a morning exam.
Except that it didn’t take much for a mother, sitting on the local school board, to denounce her to the Florida State Department of Education, under the pretext of “indoctrination”, continued the teacher.
Because the story, following a group of explorers who discover a new world, introduces a gay secondary character, who would have a crush on a boy mentioned a few times.
The mother in question, whose identity would have been revealed on Sunday by the Democrats of Tallahassee, would be Shannon Rodriguez, member of the group Moms for Liberty, who would have campaigned in particular to withdraw certain books which she considers “pigs” and “pornographic” libraries.
“It is not a teacher’s job to impose their beliefs on children. Allowing films like these helps teachers open the door to conversations that have no place in a classroom,” she allegedly said at a school council meeting last week, according to the British media. .
The teacher is now reportedly under official investigation for possible violations of the Parental Rights in Education Act, introduced last year by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis which would ban teachers from addressing the issues of sexual orientation or gender identity.
This law has been dubbed the “don’t say gay” law.