Palm Beach County School Board member Edwin Ferguson called Charlie Kirk a “racist.”
“There’s a letter that came from the DOE to the superintendents, cautioning all superintendents to caution their staff to be careful about what they say, because they could ultimately lose their teaching certificates. Because if students and parents feel that the comment of the teacher somehow makes them feel bad, then there could be some consequences and repercussions on that,” he said, explaining that he “looked at the statutes and the administrative rules that were referenced in this September 11 letter from [Florida Department of Education]” and found that “unless as a parent or you as a teacher feel bad because I as a teacher don’t miss a racist — a racist bigot at that — I don’t see how you’re going to be at risk of losing your teaching certificate.”
“So, you know, when we talk about the Holocaust, I’ve yet to hear a person of the Jewish faith say that I missed Adolf Hitler. He said a very a lot of toxic things that were very undermining to society at large. We want to never forget that, and we want to be better than that,” he said, noting, “The things that I’ve heard from this gentleman, Mr. Kirk, as it relates to the black experience here in the country are definitely things that would make me say, ‘Hey, I’m sorry that he’s died, that he passed away, but he did not use his voice effectively,’”
“So, that’s my two cents on that,” he added, encouraging teachers to “say what you need to say but just be respectful and don’t say it in a discriminatory way against him or anyone else who might be offended.”
Last week, Florida Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas sent a letter to the state’s school district superintendents, warning them to maintain professional conduct or face repercussions.
Kamoutsas’ letter condemns Florida educators who have “posted despicable comments on social media” regarding Kirk’s death, declaring that he will conduct investigations into “every educator who engages in this vile, sanctionable behavior.”
