Education

This past Tuesday, New Times published internal chats showing members of the Florida International University chapter of Turning Point USA joking about white nationalism, “Jew-hating,” underage cartoon porn, and Syrian refugees raping white women. But so far, school administrators have done nothing. In fact, amid a national outcry over the leaked, racist chats, TPUSA even set up a table on the FIU campus today to hand out buttons and “Socialism Sucks” posters.

Back in 2017, New Times obtained screenshots of gross chats among Florida International University’s Campus Republicans. They joked about the Charlottesville neo-Nazi attack last year and threatened to “call ICE” on fellow, undocumented students who were begging Congress to pass the DREAM Act. Now, New Times has received chats from another FIU…

Since the day after the February 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, David “Cobra” Clemente has been a constant presence, standing guard when students arrive at 5:30 a.m. and when they leave around 2:40 p.m. In the beginning, he was surrounded by other red-beret-topped Guardian Angels who patrolled the school as volunteers — and won the affection of many worried parents and shaken students.

Kanye West has unlimited resources. He is one of the world’s most famous people. Yet he apparently has no better place to hunt for new political ideas than the Florida charter-school world, which sucks so hard that pop-rapper Pitbull is legally allowed to run his own school in Miami.

In September 2015, social studies teacher Fran Wernersbach was reassigned from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High while the school district investigated a slew of allegations against her, including that she’d ridiculed her class, sworn at administrators, and spread rumors about a student. She was told to contact the principal if she needed to set foot on campus, because her daughter was a student.

During his career at South Miami Senior High School, Armando Alejo got rave reviews from students for being a laid-back guy who taught difficult concepts in a way that was easy to understand.

One of the biggest providers of mental health counselors in Florida schools, Motivational Coaches of America (MCUSA), has come under fire after an investigation by the Palm Beach Post found that some employees say they haven’t been paid and that high turnover has led to counselors abandoning children who have grown to trust them.

Broward Teachers Union president Anna Fusco was visiting Olsen Middle School to investigate problems reported to her by teachers at the school. When she came out of a bathroom, she found an angry principal. The school’s head administrator, Valerie Harris, told her, “We’re not going to have any further conversation” and “You need to leave campus.”

Last week, Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Kyle Kashuv visited a gun range with his dad and practiced shooting an AR-15. He later posted about the experience on Twitter, where he uploaded a video of himself firing at a silhouette target.

As the white Chevy Tahoe hurtled toward Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, Broward schools Superintendent Robert Runcie jammed an iPhone to his ear. Between a never-ending stream of calls from reporters and school staffers and politicians asking questions he couldn’t yet answer, he dialed Sheriff Scott Israel. Just a few hours…

As an educator with more than 30 years in the field, Miami-Dade Commissioner Rebeca Sosa has kept a depressing tally of the increasing number of Miami-Dade children plagued by gun violence. In 2016, more than 30 minors were fatally shot. Last December alone, a 2-year-old, three 16-year-olds, and a 17-year-old lost their lives to guns.

Time and time again, the teenage survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland have proven they are excellent at social media clapbacks. So it should come as no surprise that they’re flooding the web with images of their new mandatory clear backpacks stuffed full of tampons, memes, and even live fish.

Last month, an activist group outed a longtime Florida Atlantic University professor as a recipient of funding from the billionaire, conservative Koch brothers and, more troubling, as a former member of the League of the South Institute, the “educational” arm of an outright white nationalist group. As New Times noted weeks ago, Marshall DeRosa has written articles soft-peddling the morality of Confederate slavery as recently as August 2017.

Marshall DeRosa is a professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. As part of a program funded by the Charles Koch Institute and the Boca-based private-prison giant the GEO Group, DeRosa gets paid to spout his ideas to inmates at GEO’s South Bay Correctional Facility.

Barely a week after South Florida resident Anita Britt joined the corporate board of American Outdoor Brands, Nikolas Cruz used one of the company’s AR-15 assault rifles to murder 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That wasn’t Britt’s only high-profile role, though: Just a month earlier, she’d been hired as chief financial and administrative officer at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens.

LeBron James is arguably the first iconic celebrity athlete since Muhammad Ali to use his superstar status to shine a light on American injustice and empower black people to lead successful lives. So it’s an honor to know the NBA’s best player is staking his name as a Hollywood player…

Charles Murray is best known for his book The Bell Curve, which tries to use so-called science to argue that individuals from some races (the whiter ones) are more intelligent than those from others (the darker ones). Actual scientists have called out the book as racist and stunningly dishonest and odious.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvahlo will, improbably, remain in his job for the foreseeable future. After flying to New York City for multiple dinners with Mayor Bill de Blasio, being offered a prestigious job running America’s largest public school system, and even being formally welcomed into the post yesterday, Carvalho did a 180 this afternoon.