The Board considered an item, without any motion to vote attached to the item, that allowed for a public hearing regarding the adoption of new elementary social studies instructional materials. Numerous members of the public rose to express their concern over some of the new curriculum being offered to school districts by the state. Numerous people also brought up concerns over the ability of parents being able to file complaints regarding schools in classrooms.

Board Member Rosanne Wood expressed her concern over the instructional textbook being recommended to the school district by the state from Gallopade. However, Wood recommended finding history experts from FSU and FAMU to be subject matter experts on history.

Board Member Marcus Nicholas reminded the board and public that he was in favor of the McGraw-Hill instructional materials and not a fan of the Gallopade version.
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The Board considered and approved an item that extends professional architectural consulting services to Fitzgerald Collaborative Group, LLC for the Nims Middle School Cafeteria Replacement and Gym Renovation Project. The project comes in at just under $8 million and will include: a new cafeteria with stage/multipurpose dining area, demolition of existing cafeteria, new construction, remodeling and renovations to gymnasium and site work. Nine other firms submitted qualification statements for the project and fived were interviewed.

The Board also considered and approved the same kind of services to Architects Lewis+Whitlock, PA for: new classroom building, new gymnasium with locker rooms and stage, demolition of existing gymnasium, demolition of buildings 2, 4 and part of 9, demolition of existing stage in dining area to expand dining area, add additional parking, and enlarge holding pond. The total for this project comes up just shy of $7.5 million.
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The Board approved an item that would establish a short form agreement with Ripee Construction, Inc. for the Leon High School Crack Repair Project. The project will go assist with “structural stabilization of the South wing of the main building and repairs to interior wall cracks caused by building movement. Work includes, but is not limited to, site demolition, excavation & backfill, shoring, helical piles, below slab injections, and minor MEP disconnects as needed to access the site and other work as directed. The amount of this agreement is not to exceed $600,000.00.”

The contract can be viewed here and the short form agreement can be found here.
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The full meeting can be watched here.

The city commission approved an agenda item that moves forward the grant recommendations for the Tourist Development Tax funding to the Challenger Learning Center, LeMoyne Art Foundation and Indaba, Inc., Florida Litfest, Inc., Tallahassee Symphony, Inc. & Southern Shakespeare, Inc.

In total the varying groups will be receiving varying amounts of a $2.05 million grant. The agenda item with additional details can be viewed here.
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The commission approved an agenda item that adopts a text amendment related to the Southside Action Plan as detailed in the 2030 Tallahassee-Leon County Comprehensive Plan. The Southside Action Plan can be described as a plan “developed and monitored to align with the community’s desire for a framework of action in the southern part of the Tallahassee urban area.” The plan contains components like “Beautification,” “Investment,” and “Engaged and Activated Citizens.”

The action plan can be viewed here.
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The commission approved an agenda item that awards the Runway 18-36 Rehabilitation Project at Tallahassee International Airport to CW Roberts Contracting, Inc. The dollar amount of the project totals $8.23 million. The agenda item noted that the “Completion of this project will remove the existing weight restrictions imposed on Runway 18-36 and provide an alternative runway for air carrier operations.”

The project will take approximately five months to complete and will not hinder existing air travel in an out of TLH.

The notice of intent to award can be viewed here.
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The commission approved an Annual Action Plan FY24 Overview which “requires Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) entitlement communities receiving funds through its Community Planning and Development Division (CPD)” from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) “to prepare a five-year Consolidated Plan describing how these federal funds will be allocated and used during this timeframe.”

The goal is to ensure Tallahassee is focused on affordable housing. During the short discussion, Commissioner Jack Porter said “I personally find the way we do housing in this country as completely dysfunction” and she wanted to ensure renters were taken care of. 
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The commission facilitated the first and only public hearing on a new noise ordinance “prohibiting excessive sound” within the Urban Core. The code prohibits “noise disturbance” which is “sound which is unreasonably loud, raucous, or jarring to a reasonable person of normal sensitivities and which is plainly audible to a police officer or code enforcement officer.” The window of time during which the excessive noise is prohibited is between 2:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.

The general direction of the discussion focused on not the businesses with liquor licenses within the Urban Core, but many of the parties facilitated by Greek life at the universities.

The proposed ordinance was passed unanimously and can be viewed here.
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The meeting can be viewed here.

The LCS school board approved an articulation agreement between LCS and Tallahassee Community College (TCC) in the Career and Technical Education field establishing a relationship between LCS students and TCC’s Career Pathways specialists. According tot the document, “TCC will work with the high school to establish Career Pathways to serve Career and Technical Education (CTE) students.” The articulation agreement can be viewed here.
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The LCS school board approved an articulation agreement between LCS and FAMU for the 2023-2024 school year that “provides accelerated learning mechanisms through Dual Enrollment for eligible LCS Students.” The articulation agreement spells out the policies required needed for LCS students to adhere to in order to receive college credit and accelerate their post-high school learning experience. The agreement can be viewed here.
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During the public comment portion of the meeting, Superintendent Rocky Hanna was moved to tears after numerous parents and members of the community offered their support for Hanna as he is being investigated by the Florida Department of Education for allegedly allowing politics to influence his job as superintendent.

Board Members Rosanne Wood and Darryl Jones echoed their appreciation, and City Commissioner Curtis Richardson was in the audience when they gave Hanna a standing ovation thanking him for his work.
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The board approved two items that established a Memorandum of Understanding between LCS and the Leon County Teachers’ Association (LCTA) approving stipends for LCS teachers “that have completed the Excellence in Civics Endorsement Courses provided through CPALMS.” Teachers will be receiving $3,000 if they complete the course. The MOU can be viewed here.

Similarly, the board approved 2023 Summer premium pay bonuses for LCS teachers between LCS and LCTA. “All Teachers participating in the Summer Learning Loss Recovery Program, Summer Reading Program, ESE Pre-K and Extended School Year Program, will receive a $300 premium pay bonus for each full week worked during the 2023 Summer Learning Loss Recovery Program. Teachers who work less than the full schedule in any week, will not receive the premium pay bonus for that week.”

ESE teachers would be receiving $500 for each full week worked during the 2023 Extended School Year program. The MOU can be viewed here.
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The full meeting can be viewed here.

According to the proposal, “The law enforcement officer would be required to live in the home for at least five (5) years. Should the officer choose to leave the home after the required 5-year period, the County would agree to buy the law enforcement officer’s share of the home’s equity based on the appraised value. The County would then make the home available exclusively to another sworn law enforcement officer to take up residence.”

Commissioner Carolyn Cummings expressed her support for the idea but is “looking for more criteria” in order to move forward. The board moved to accept the report for further consideration.
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The board of county commissioners considered Agenda Item 13 which determined which firm they would contract with for Bond Counsel. Previously, the board had worked with the firm Byrant Miller Olive, P.A., and they thanked them for their work in the past, but “The proposals submitted by Bryant Miller Olive P.A. and Kutak Rock LLP were deemed nonresponsive and were not scored,” or put up for consideration.

Commissioner Bill Proctor offered comments in light of the representation makeup of the firm they previously contracted with.

“Last week, Thursday, the State of Florida’s efforts against DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the whole past four months of that kind of “anti” sentiment for diversity heightens my sensitivities, it heightens how I hear, and heightens what I read. And to know that we’ve had a black female as lead counsel for Bryant Miller Olive for the last long time, and that person at the last Thursday’s vote in the Capitol and that person’s been our DEI. County attorney I want to encourage with the discretion, which is yours, that black attorneys are utilized by your office, but the only one that I knew of was Bryant Miller Olive. So when the Florida Legislature, when all the smoke coming out of the stack is talking all that crap, and you give me such thin bases to understand how you arrived, how this committee arrived at that decision, that the kind of stuff that District 1…that’s why they vote for me.”

The board voted to approve contract services with Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson, P.A. for Bond Counsel services and George A. Smith, PPLC, for Disclosure Counsel services.
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At the end of the meeting, Commissioner Rick Minor offered his disappointment that Florida lawmakers passed a bill, HB 1417, preempting local governments from passing ordinances related to landlord-tenant relationships. As Minor was speaking, Commissioner David O’Keefe nodded in agreement with Minor’s sentiment and Commissioner Proctor also expressed mutual feelings regarding the matter. The comments can be viewed here.
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The meeting can be viewed here and here.

The city commission heard a legislative update from Thomas Whitley from Strategic Solutions. After Whitley’s presentation on the current state of Florida lawmaking and its impact on local municipalities, Commissioner Jeremy Matlow offered up his thoughts on Whitley’s work and the bills being passed by the Florida Legislature.

“Dr. Whitley, you have the hardest job as you gotta come tell us all the bad things that are happening across the street. And I think this year has been particularly egregious. I mean, the preemptions on local government from the utilities, to basic ordinances, to the ability to make sure housing remains affordable in our communities, all those very basic functions that local governments are meant to serve are being stripped away from our local governments all across Florida. And that’s not even to bring in the near abortion ban that passed or the unlicensed gun permit law that passed, I mean, things are getting really out of control.”
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The city introduced a noise ordinance “concerning regulation of excessive sound” particularly for “establishments which offer alcoholic beverages for sale and which are located on property which is zoned Central Core and within the Urban Core.”

Additionally, the “ordinance prohibits outdoor amplified sound which is plainly audible 200 feet from the establishment, on Sunday to Thursday nights commencing at 11:00 p.m., and Friday and Saturday nights commencing at midnight, until 7:00 a.m. the following morning.”

This ordinance comes after months of local residents and business owners, including hotel managers, coming before the city and asking for a sound ordinance as they testified that it affected their businesses and customer experience. Residents also shared that their homes were often subject to loud noises throughout the night.

The discussion over a potential noise ordinance gained traction last October during college football season when locals began showing up to city meetings and offering complaints about the loud, amplified music at bars and other establishments. As a result, the city was prompted to begin researching how other municipalities handled noise ordinances during the week nights compared to the weekends.

The proposed ordinance can be viewed here and the first and only public meeting on it will take place May 10, 2023.
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During the “Unagendaed Speakers” portion of the meeting, one speaker rose to complain about a recent Tweet and Facebook post from April 22 by Commissioner Jeremy Matlow. The speaker identified himself as the “victim of a violent assault by multiple people” during the summer of 2020 and during a “street blockage protest in front of the State Capitol.” He claimed that he “drew” his “legally carried firearm which effectively stopped the attack.”

According to the speaker, the image of the man being shared by Matlow caused the man to “become Mr. Matlow’s posterchild for what’s wrong in the city today.”

In this portion of the meeting, commissioners do not have the ability to immediately respond to public speaker, but Matlow took time to address “a couple public comments.” 

“Frankly, I think the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law has been so perverted in the State of Florida that we allow people to get away with things that they shouldn’t. And I think our community will become even more dangerous as unlicensed concealed carry is now legal in the State of Florida. In regards to that incident at the State Capitol, I did have the opportunity to review the videos and hear from individuals who were ordered to their knees at gunpoint who weren’t involved in any altercation at all. To me, that is wrong and unacceptable and it shouldn’t be allowed in the city.”
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The commission approved several agenda items. They included an awarded single source contract to WESCO (Honeywell Distributor) for the purchase of electric meters totaling $1.75 million. Similraly, the city accepted a Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) block grant with the intention of providing “StarMetro with Operating Assistance in the amount not to exceed $1,800,000 for FY 2024” with a 50 percent local match.
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The full meeting can be viewed here.

The school board heard a presentation from the Council on the Status of Men and Boys, a part of Leon County. The presentation was designed to simply be informative, and the presentation was given by Royle King, executive director of the council.

In the presentation, the data showed that in Leon County, 75 percent of victims and 81 percent of known criminal offenders were black. Notably, the highest homicide frequency occurred in the 32304 zip code while comprising only 17 percent of the Leon County population.

The full presentation can be viewed here.
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The board approved an item for consideration that gives school in the district the ability to “purchase a supply of the opioid antagonist naloxone from a wholesale distributor.” The purpose of is to ensure schools are prepared for fentanyl encounters in “the event that a student has an opioid overdose.” Additionally, “the naloxone must be maintained in a secure location on the school’s premises.”

One of the provisions also ensures school staff are shielded from lawsuits by the “Good Samaritan Act” if they are unable to revive a student or adult and were truly acting in good faith.
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The board passed an articulation agreement between the school district and Lively Technical College for dual enrollment. “The purpose of the agreement is for Lively Technical College to provide Dual Enrollment Services to Liberty County School District,” the board’s agenda stated. The articulation agreement spelled out what the responsibilities of each entity will be for LCS students seeking credit from Lively. The agreement can be viewed here.

Florida State University Schools had their own articulation agreement passed at an earlier point in the meeting, and that one can be viewed here.
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There were three construction-related items that the board approved including ones for Sabal Palm Elementary School, W.T. Moore Elementary School, and a “Certification of applicants seeking prequalification for bidding LCSB construction projects.”

For the Sabal Palm project, $53,140 will go to RKJ, Inc. to provide a new roof for the school’s Building 8. The architect continuing contract can be viewed here and the short form agreement can be viewed here.

For the W.T. Moore project, $9,039 will be going to Ardaman & Associates, Inc. “to conduct concrete, density testing services and visual structural steel inspection services.” Similarly, the short form agreement can be viewed here and the continuing contract is here.
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Board Member Alva Swafford Smith was not present for the meeting.
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The full meeting can be viewed here.

The Board pulled an agenda item out of the consent agenda, meaning it was determined to have value for a brief debate and discussion. The Board had a brief conversation regarding the upcoming workshop the board will have regarding going to a twice-per-month pay schedule.
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The Board approved an agenda item that is a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the school district and the Leon County Teachers Association. The MOU contains tentatively agreed upon provisions for the teacher transfer process. The MOU can be viewed here.

Board Member Marcus Nicholas raised a question regarding a current bill in the Florida Legislative Session that raises the teacher’s union participation threshold to 60%. Superintendent Hanna said there are several other questions that need to be answered about how the bill would affect LCS, but that his recommendation would be to pass the MOU before the bill is signed and comes into effect.
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The Board approved a number of construction items for numerous schools, and they can be viewed here.
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The Board amended school policy related to the “Parental Notification of Arrests of Employees.” The policy states that within twenty-four (24) hours after a law enforcement agency provides the Superintendent with written notification pursuant to F.S. 1012.797 that a District employee has been arrested for a felony, or a misdemeanor involving the abuse of a minor child, or the sale or possession of a controlled substance, the principal shall notify parents of enrolled students who had direct contact with the employee and include, at a minimum, the name and specific charges against the employee.
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The Board approved the tentative agreement reached by the Superintendent with the Leon Classroom Teachers Association (LCTA). The item notes that bargaining teams for LCTA and the Leon County School District reached a tentative agreement of the 2022-2025 Collective Bargaining Contract. Provisions of the contract are to be effective upon the date of ratification by the Board except for those provisions that indicate a retroactive or prospective effective date.
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The Board approved Amendment #1 to Contract# C22101 with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office for School Resource Officer Services. The amendment confirms the cost for services for Fiscal Year 2023/2024, assigns a second full-time deputy at the Godby, Lincoln, Leon, Rickards, and Chiles High Schools, adds another sergeant position to supervise the SRD Program (for a total of 3), adds the costs of summer school services into the base contract amount, and makes administrative language changes and clarifications.
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The board had a short meeting only totaling 38 minutes and it can be viewed here.

The Board approved a Superintendent recommendation to adopt a change order for Ferrara Consultants and Space Age Roof Tech, LLC. Sealey Elementary School, Roof Replacement Project. The contract amount will be increased by $145,788.35. The original amount approved was $2,277,350. The changes were the result of unforeseen circumstances.
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The Board approved a Superintendent recommendation to adopt a two change orders in the deductive amount of $132,594.97 and $234,527.44 for Allstate Construction, Inc., Rickards High School New Construction, Remodeling, and Renovations & Site Improvements project. The deductions were due to project savings and direct purchasing actions. The estimated construction budget for the project is $35,000,000.
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The school board heard a presentation from Dr. Alan Cox, Assistant Superintendent, on the topic of sexual education, also known more formally as “Human Growth and Development.” In the presentation, Cox went through a number of pieces of information in his presentation ranging from the definition of LCS’ sexual education program, opt out forms provided to parents for their children, and data sets displaying the STD rates among 15-19 year-olds in Leon County.

Cox reiterated that LCS had opted into the Abstinence Plus program based on the historical data dating back years, based on what was going on around the country at the time it was implemented.
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The Board held a public hearing with most public speakers encouraging the adoption of the revised Human Growth and Development curriculum. The LCS Human Growth and Development included lessons for 4^th and 5^th grade, for grades 6^th through 8^th and high school.
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The Board approved the Superintendent recommendation to adopt math and ELA (English, Language, Arts) instructional materials. Pursuant to F.S. 1006.283 governing the adoption of instructional materials, a public review of adoption materials was completed between March 7 and March 27th. A public hearing was held for this agenda item on March 7, 2023.
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The Board approved several policy revisions including revisions related to the rules that address training requirements for exertional heat stroke, including administration of cooling zones. Revisions also permit students, enrolled in private school or educated at home, to participate in a District interscholastic or intrascholastic sport.
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Towards the end of the meeting, Board Member Darryl Jones took a moment to offer his thoughts regarding “curriculum, books, book selection, and book banning.” He said that when he was in school, his second home was the library. He also said that one of the first “civil rights that we fought for as a nation was the public right to learn” and that “it should go unscathed” for the sake of “our young people.”
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The full meeting can be viewed online.

Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil provided a presentation to the commission updating them on LCSO’s HOST Program, which is designed to address issues of homelessness in Leon County. McNeil said that he is well aware that the update may not lead to immediate solutions to many of the problems facing the community, but acknowledged that it is a host of problems that has led to Leon County’s homeless problem.

McNeil did conclude his thought by saying “arresting our way” out of homelessness “is not our preferred method” given how the detention facilities are near full and “defecation” along with “other minor violations” would set LCSO over the top.

The commissioners were afforded a short time to offer comment in response to McNeil’s report, and Commissioner Bill Proctor said that he did not feel compelled to offer up new ordinances. But he did say that he is hearing of a fair amount of “wanderers” in his district and that parents are growing afraid to have their children play in the yard because of “wanderers.” Also noting that he is not sure if it is “illegal to wander.”

Commissioner Brian Welch noted that one of the statistics that stood out to him during McNeil’s presentation was: of the hundreds of interactions with homeless individuals from the law enforcement officers as part of the HOST program, only seven individuals got permanent housing and only 39 percent of the homeless consider themselves “local.” The remaining homeless are not from the area.

Welch continued by saying that he is tired “of kicking the can down the road” and that “we need to do something” as the board agreed on a workshop to address the issue. Welch also said that there needs to be additional questions asked as to who are the claimed homeless and who are panhandlers. He witnessed, along with members of his district, people getting out of vans with bright vests that looked like they were conducting charitable work without a permit. Welch did not count out the possibility of fraud taking place by those organized panhandlers.
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The board approved Agenda Item 24 which allows the county administrator to negotiate waste collection service with WastePro for 30,000 residential and 400 commercial sites. While WastePro was the lowest bid, it will still likely be a 54 percent rate increased to $278 per year for residences which accounts for “inflation, labor shortages, and supply chain costs.” The current monthly rate for residents is $15.03 per month and will increase to $23.17 per month. The commercial bid rate will also increase by at least 58 percent, one estimate will increase 116 percent for a compactor container servicing 18 customers.
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The board considered and passed Agenda Item 31 which would rezone a 30+ acre parcel of land located at 3762 Capital Circle NW currently in possession by Northwoods Baptist Church. The rezoning would change it to residential allowing for the building and development of residential homes if the church opts to eventually sell the land.

Commissioners Rick Minor and David O’Keefe expressed their opposition to the rezoning while Commissioners Brian Welch, Carolyn Cummings, Bill Proctor, Christian Caban, and Nick Maddox supported it. The final vote was 5-2 in favor of rezoning.

The issue took over three hours to resolve which included commissioner comments and public comments.

The full discussion and debate can be viewed here.
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The meeting can be viewed here.

In the championship game, the first quarter ended with CLA holding a 17-10 lead, but the Lions blew things wide open in the second and third quarters outscoring the Eagles 40-13.

While the Lions entered the playoffs with a losing record, the majority of their matchups, consisted of games against FHSAA public schools in the Big Bend region. However, despite being a smaller school, CLA was competitive during the regular season against larger schools. The Lions lost to the North Florida Christian School Eagles 67-57, and in two matchups against the Lawton Chiles High School Timberwolves, the Timberwolves won 61-51 and 65-52.

When the Lions competed against other private schools in the region, they dominated. In two matchups against Tallavana Christian, the Lions won 67-29 and 68-44. Against Aucilla Christian, the Lions won 55-22, and against Wakulla Christian School, CLA won 84-57.

By the end of their playoff run, CLA was 9-11 ending the year with a four-game winning streak.

Throughout the year, the Lions relied on the leadership of Ben Holloway who led the team with 11.7 points per game on a 55 percent field goal percentage and 8.8 rebounds per game. Holloway also had four double-doubles during the season. Holloway’s younger brother, Bowman Holloway, also contributed with 9.4 points per game, which was second on the team.

The Lions scorers also relied on the passing ability of Owen Brown, who led the team with 4.3 assists per game.

The league CLA is a member of, the FICAA, came together with the goal of facilitating “tournaments for small Christian and non-traditional schools throughout the State of Florida.”

The FICAA features two Tallahassee-based schools: CLA and Holy Comforter Episcopal School.

Board Member Laurie Lawson Cox, in her comments toward the end of the meeting, addressed Superintendent Rocky Hanna receiving a $35,000 grant from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the need for “truth, trust, and transparency.” The AFT is the largest teachers’ union in the country, and Lawson Cox pointed out that the AFT has gotten more political “in the last 20 years” spending money on “political campaigns, and promoting policies and agendas and lobbying for things that really don’t have much to do with reading, teacher retention, and with improving our test scores.”

She said that much of those political dollars come from teachers’ dues, and that impacted her when she was a member of the union when she was teaching.

Lawson Cox continued her comments by saying that the AFT’s donations go “to one political party” and the effects of their advocacy of keeping schools closed during COVID is showing up in student proficiency now.

She said she was “very disappointed” that LCS accepted money from the AFT, of which “is not really even a teacher’s salary” while having very little presence in Florida.

However, Superintendent Hanna commented by saying that he was asked by the Leon Classroom Teachers Association (LCTA) to accept the money to “help with teacher recruitment and retention.” Hanna insisted that the money was not donated to Leon County Schools but to LCTA.

Board Chair Alva Swafford Striplin said that she understood the contribution from the AFT the same way as Lawson Cox, that LCS was the recipient of the money. Again, Hanna said the check was made out to the LCTA.

Board Member Darryl Jones contributed by saying that he also believes in “truth, trust, and transparency” and he said he was unaware that LCS lost any of that. He does not believe that the board and LCS needs to “reestablish” trust, seeing that he does not view they have lost trust with the public.
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During consent agenda portion of the meeting, the school board approved a number of items in bloc format. Many of them were construction projects at a number of the local schools.

Some of those projects include: a school initiated to install an outdoor eating area at Gilchrist Elementary School, Phase III Hartsfield Elementary School Building 2 Cafeteria Replacement Project to be submitted for review by the Department of Education, Phase III for the WT Moore Elementary School New Construction, Remodeling, Renovations, and Site Improvements Classroom Redesign Project, professional services at Buck Lake Elementary School for parking lot improvements in the amount of $43,020.00, increase the contract amount by $45,376.00 for the Parker Brothers Roofing contract at Leon High School, and a school initiated project at Roberts Elementary School for a new Pre-K/Kindergarten playground.
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The school board considered an item and had a discussion around it related to Heritage Trails 5-Year Educational Plant Supplemental Survey. Board Member Marcus Nicholas opposed the language under the “Survey Annotation” portion of the document that stipulated “Heritage Trails will be converted to house Elementary Second Chance students (Building 2).”

Board Member Jones concurred with Nicholas saying that he is aware that the Second Chance program is housed at Pineview Elementary and there is interest by the current Pineview principal to “fortify the current program.”

As part of the conversation later on, Superintendent Rocky Hanna said he did not understand why there was opposition from the board regarding the language of moving the Second Chance facility to Heritage Trails.

Eventually, the school board approved the document removing the language “Second Chance.”
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With the meeting taking place on February 14, Superintendent Rocky Hanna reminded the board it was the five-year anniversary of the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. As part of this remembrance, he pointed out the efforts LCS has taken regarding school safety including implementing “puppy patrol” from a K9 unit and an anonymous app that is up and running where students can alert security personnel if they see anything suspicious.
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The full meeting can be watched here.

Most recently, the Littlejohn’s were struck a blow in their suit after Federal Judge Mark Walker dismissed their case. However, the family will be appealing the decision.

In the interview with Scott, Littlejohn recapped the incident that launched the lawsuit where officials at her daughter’s school put together a transgender bathroom plan without the parents’ permission, and how the superintendent of Leon County Schools has still maintained that students have the right to privacy apart from their parents.

Littlejohn noted in the interview that the basic understanding going forward is that parents have a constitutional right to determine the upbringing of their child “including medical and mental health care.”

“I think what the parents should be asking as a result of this ruling is, ‘What else can school districts do with our children that also does not meet that threshold of shocking the conscience?’” Littlejohn asked. “Because, again, the facts of the case were not disputed and I think the message it sends, loud and clear, to school districts, I worry that they are emboldened, is that they can do anything they want behind the backs of parents as long as it doesn’t meet that impossibly high threshold.”   

Scott noted that now the case goes to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals where he asserted there seems to be indication that they could be sympathetic to the Littlejohns’ case.

“Time will tell,” Littlejohn said. “This ruling goes against the [Florida] Supreme Court ruling so we will have to see if they overturn this ruling.”

Littlejohn, who has worked professionally in the mental health field, contended that they are seeing an “explosion” of young girls primarily “on the autism spectrum” who believe they are now in the wrong body.

She said “we are sterilizing children” by giving them gender affirming care and the public school system “is complicit” with that process.

 The full interview can be listened to here.