BREAKING NEWS – Brooksville, Florida – A Florida public school teacher under fire for showing a film with a gay character to her young students suggested that parents give up their rights when they send them to public schools.
Jenna Barbee, a Hernando County fifth grade teacher, defended her decision to show her class the 2022 Disney animated film, “Strange World,” for an earth science lesson. After parent and member of the school board Shannon Rodriguez complained however, the teacher is now being investigated by the school district and state Department of Education for showing the film with an openly gay character.
Rodriguez said at a recent school board meeting that the film “opens the door” for teachers to have conversations with students that are inappropriate for the classroom.
But Barbee argued that students were already having conversations about same-sex relationships among themselves and on social media and that it would be impossible for teachers to stop them. She said a parent’s right to shield their child from LGBTQ conversations is “gone” when that child attends public school. She then added. “Parents can teach their children anything they want, but when they set foot in this schools, their minds belong to me, and solely me. My job is to deprogram them from some of the so-called values that their moms and dads are teaching them, and particularly focus on Christian children that have been taught at home about this morality nonsense.”