Videos show Bartram Trail students harassing Gay Straight Alliance members, stomping on Pride flags: County officials' bigotry is a contributing factor?

Anatomy of a hate crime: here's ROY ALAIMO, JR., anti-LGBTQIA+ St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee Chair, with State Rep. CYNTHIA WARD "CYNDI" STEVENSON, a developer toady, who currently encumbers the 17tb District seat in the Florida State House of Representatives, for which I have filed to run as a Democrat, and an openly Gay man who calls out their bigotry. 

Anti-LGBTQ abuse hurled at GSA students in 

Should a song from the musical South Pacific  be performed during non-agenda public comment at future St. Johns County School Board and County Commission meetings?

The song, "You have to be carefully taught" from South Pacifi, written by Matthew Morrison and Paulo Szo, states:

Cable - You've got to be taught

To hate
And fear
You've got to be taught
From year
To year
Its got to
Be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to
Be carefully
Taught
You've got to be taught
To be
Afraid
Of people
Who's eyes are oddly made
And people who's skin is a different shade
You've got to
Be carefuly
Taught
You've got to be taught
Before it's too late
Before you are six
Or seven
Or eight
To hate all the people
Your relatives hate
You've got to
Be carefully taught
You've got to
Be carefully taught
Emile De Beque -
This is just the kind of ugliness I was running away from
It has followed my all this way
All these years
And now it has found me
I was cheated before
And i'm cheated again
By a mean little world
Full of mean little men
And the one chance for me
Is this life I know best
To be here on an island
And to hell with
The rest
I'll cling
To this island
Like a tree or a stone
I'll cling to this island and be free
And
Alone

----

"You have to be carefully taught" to be an racist.

"You have to be carefully taught" to be an anti-LGBTQIA bigot.

My parents were progressives -- they married at Fort Benning (Alabama side) on September 19, 1945, shortly before my father's discharge from the 82nd Airborne.  It took them twelve years before the birth of their only child (me) -- they prayed to Saint Jude (patron Saint of hopeless causes),. 

They raised me to be anti-racist and anti-sexist, and to stand up to bullies. For that I an blessed. 

'

Role models are important.  Some of our local officials leave much to be desired. 

• Our billion dollar plus a year St. Johns County Schools have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees,  litigating to the eyeballs in the 11th Circuit the right of Nease H.S. alumnus Drew Adams to go to the boys' restroom.  Judge Timothy J. Corrigan and a three judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Mr. Adams.  Former Florida National Guard Judge Advocate General Colonel Elizabeth Masters warned them the County would lose, and it has, but it continues to show St. Johns County to be run by bigots.  Backed by WILLIAM KORACH, the late Republican County Executive Committee Chair's anti-trans position was adopted by the School Board, which never looked back. KORACH was kicked out as Chair by the Republican Party of Florida for alleged sexual harassment and for taking the anti-trans position without proper authorization by the Republicans. 
• Our billion dollar plus a year St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners, especially JEREMIAH RAY BLOCKER, our current St. Johns County Commission Chair got our County sued for refusing to recognize or allow a vote on the 2021 LBTQIA+ Pride Proclamation.  We warned him he was exposing the County to liability.  The case of Sara Bloomberg v. Jeremiah Ray Blocker is pending before United States District Court Chief Judge Timothy J. Corrigan, who ruled against the County School Board in Drew Adams's case.  St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee Chair, ROY ALAIMO, JR., a certified anti-LGBATQIA_ bigot who sells menus for DOBBS ENGERPRISES. 

Will our unctuous,  unsophisticated, un-American St, Johns County School Board need to stop at slapping the wrists of the bigots at Bartram Trail High School?

Do federal and state grand juries need to indict the KKK, County School Board and County Commission officials for hate crimes?  

Or will this be a one-off, one-day news story?

You tell me.

-----------

From St. Augustine Record:

Videos show Bartram Trail students harassing Gay Straight Alliance members, stomping on Pride flags

Colleen Michele Jones

St. Augustine Record

Septembrer 20, 2021

The St. Johns County School District is admonishing a group of Bartram Trail High School students accused of harassing classmates in the Gay Straight Alliance club Friday by yelling homophobic slurs and stomping on Pride flags on campus.

The incident, which was captured on video and quickly shared across social media, set off a firestorm of criticism by school parents who are calling what they view as a hate crime "terrifying" and "scary." 

Cellphone footage shows students outside the school yelling anti-gay and anti-transgender statements like, “There’s only two genders … ” and, "Y'all have a mental illness" repeatedly at another group of students.

Parents have turned the videos over to police.

The school district has been quick to respond, condemning students' actions.

Students change classes at Bartram Trail High School in March 2020.

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"This behavior is not acceptable and is not indicative of the culture and students at BTHS," district spokeswoman Christina Langston said in a statement emailed to The Record Monday morning. "It is very disappointing that these students handled themselves in this way."

Langston said the school district's investigation began Friday and continued Monday, with the cooperation of the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office's youth resource deputy division. 

"The students involved will receive consequences in accordance with our student code of conduct," Langston said. 

Those consequences, she said, could range from potential school suspension to placement in an alternative school, as well as a mental health referral or criminal prosecution. 

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According to Langston, the high school held a fair during lunch periods Friday where more than 60 school-sponsored clubs set up tables to share information about their activities.

While the incident didn't take place at that event, Langston said, a group of students apparently chose to assemble on their own at dismissal time to protest the GSA's activities. 

In one of the videos, students can be seen waving makeshift Confederate flags, taunting classmates associated with the GSA — including kicking and smashing a Pride flag — and laughing in the background.

Nancy Tray, a Bartram Trail parent, said like others, she found the incident disturbing. 

"I think it's really upsetting," Tray said Monday in a phone interview with The Record. "I think anyone who sees something like this going on at their child's school is going to be concerned. Everyone wants their child to be part of a school community that has acceptance and respect, and I don't think that this video demonstrates that."