Florida teacher under investigation for showing "Confederate History Month" video to school
By: Gage Goulding (NBC News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
byGage Goulding11:16 PM EDT, Fri April 14, 2023AAAAReset
NAPLES, Fla. - A teacher at a Collier County school is facing backlash from parents after they showed a video celebrating "Confederate History Month" to the entire school.
The video aired as part of the morning announcements on Tuesday at Manatee Middle School, according to a district spokesperson.
"If you didn't know, April is an officially celebrated month here in the State of Florida named Confederate History Month," the teacher said in the video.
The school district wouldn't identify who the teacher is but said they are investigating.
"Every year our state celebrates and memorializes that valiant, brave fight and the countless sacrifices by our men and women during that known as the Civil War," said the teacher in the video.
The teacher bills the video as a look into the state's recognition of Confederate History Month.
However, parents call this pro-Confederate propaganda.
"It was very biased seeming," said Casey Smith. "The confederacy, as far as I'm concerned, has always been a stain on American history."
"To me, it looks like straight out of a Confederate sympathizer playbook," said Annie O'Donnell.
At one point in the video, the teacher suggests a different name for the Civil War.
"[The] Civil War, but may be more correctly titled the War To Prevent Southern Independence," he said.
"No. It is the Civil War," responded Casey Smith. "It has always been called the Civil War."
Parents tell NBC2 they have no problem talking about slavery, the Civil War, or our nation's darkest days.
"Some of this actually sounds very accurate," Smith said.
The issue they have is with what the teacher made up and put in the video and in front of their child's faces.
"They spoke about celebrating the confederacy in the State of Florida," Smith said.
O'Donnell, whose kids don't go to Manatee Middle School, said it's important for kids to learn about our nation's history, but not in a way like this.
"Doing it accurately, holistically, fully," she said. "I would find it difficult to imagine that the students here are going to be able to trust this particular teacher again."
The State of Florida does recognize April as Confederate History Month. Several movements in recent years have failed. In Florida, the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, along with Confederate Memorial Day are all considered state-legal holidays.
Collier County Public Schools said the instruction of Confederate History Month is not a part of the district's curriculum.
The district wouldn't identify who the teacher is, but a spokesperson did say they are still employed while the school investigates.
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Florida, home to a leading GOP presidential candidate , celebrates Confederate History Month. One would think that the most popular governor in America could persuade his state to end this unpatriotic practice.
Imagine though if a middle school teacher in Florida put up a video celebrating communism, DeSantis would be all over it the next day.
He claims that he only wants "patriotic " history taught in Florida schools, so why hasnt he condemned this teacher and Confederate History Month ?
I can't find any commemorative event scheduled in VA this month.
They stopped in 2010 apparently.
During my 5 years in SC, May 10 was like the opening day of hunting season in many season.
Multiple people missed work and were hungover the next day. Big picnics planned by the Daughters of the Confederacy at grave yards like Beaufort National Cemetary.
The loss is still palpable for many.
The irony is that todays residents are descended from carpetbaggers as all of the locals left
Beaufort and settled in OK or TX during the "War between the States".
According to the seeded article, which originates from a Florida television station, Florida still acknowledges Confederate History Month
I think maybe the governor stopped making proclamations at the start of April, but it appears it is still on the books as a recognized commemorated month by the state of Florida. Maybe DeSantis will clear it up for us. /s
If I remember right, the federal government still recognizes Columbus Day as a federal day off.
Which aligns perfectly with what is in the Wiki link.
Thanks...
Kudos to those Floridian parents for getting involved in what was being taught to their children.
The real history of the Civil War should be taught in schools, instead of the revisionist lies and untruths promoted in programs like CRT.
OMG.
You are determined to double and triple down on nonsense.
Please Greg, tell us the true history of the civil war as you see it. This ought to be good.
Good luck, a 40 year old list of history books about the Civil War numbers over 6,000 titles. Include biographies, novels and whatnot the list expands to 100,000 titles.
Putting that aside, history is inevitably revisionist by nature.
Yes there many different perspectives about the American Civil War, which is one of the most written about periods in world history.
Still, the general overall picture is quite clear. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 caused the southern slave states to come to a final conclusion - that northern politicians would not rest until slavery was brought to an end. Since ending slavery was a non starter in the south, the slave states seceded in order to protect their "right" to own human beings as property. This is crystal clear from contemporaneous documentation. This Florida teacher says that the war should have been called "The War To Prevent Southern Independence", but why did they want independence? So they could continue to own human beings as slaves.
I'm not sure Greg understands that.
Yes, all of the issues that the southern states raised, link back to slavery.
Oh, I understand it very well...I was commenting on the "the revisionist lies and untruths promoted in programs like CRT"
Ok, tell us about the 'untruths and lies' about the Civil War that you have detected in CRT.
Give us something beyond right wing talking points for once.
All of the reasons that the South wanted to secede go through the lens of slavery.
No shit? Too big of an economic investment and people couldn't concieve of life with so many freed slaves among them.
Kind of like the current Republican Party. Even got some of the same boogeymen.
All people are created equal. But believe me, we've still got plenty of Pigs.
How much do repubs have invested in slavery?
I don't know. I wouldn't think any nowadays, but you never know.
Think oil. Think LGBTQ people. Think colored people. Get back to me if you have a serious comment.
Huh?
Oh, like that "truthful" movie "Birth of a Nation" from the early 1900s?
There's real history and his-story.
You need it explained?
Oil- If the Republican party had adopted a more rational approach to changing the infrastructure over from oil to electricity we could now be leading the world in technology and manufacture of products to make and use electricity. Instead, the Republican party had to be dragged, kicking and screaming towards the goal and they are still fighting it thirty years on. Instead of thinking about what the future would look like, how much money there was to be made during and after the transition they still poo-poo most things environmental. What a loss for the US economy.
LGBTQ rights- The Republican party is dragging some states backwards, as if that Genie hadn't already left the lamp. They are actively trying to reduce human rights, period. LGBTQ are people. That's right people, just like everybody else. On here, I have witnessed people who are in full agreement with the belittling and demonizing of these people.
Black Lives Matter... I will just leave it there. I am sure (?) that you can fill in the rest.
Do you have the mistaken impression that I'm a repub?
Didn't President Woodrow Wilson have that shown in the WH and afterwards remark:
Actually, I was hoping in drawing you into a conversation.
You replied to my comment that all of the stated reasons the states gave can be seen as arising from slavery:
To which I replied:
After your reply incorrectly insinuating that I claimed the Republican party was currently invested in slavery, I pointed out examples of the way that the Republican party of today did in fact have economic investments which they did not want to diminish and I drew parallels between the human rights of slaves and the way in which Republicans are trying to stuff the LGBTQ population back into the closet.
Nowhere have I made any assumptions as to party affiliation. I think that the current political climate is a direct outcome of the two-party system and think that it should be dismantled with all due haste. At the very least, the two-party system should be removed from setting up elections and the determination of who can be considered electable. But right now I do not see that happening.
I don't think there is much similar. Slavery represented about half of the wealth in the South and 20% of the entire national wealth. By 1860,it was deeply ingrained in the economic and social institutions there. Today's Repub party is pandering to its current base on LGBTQ.
What would you like to see in it's place?
You are babbling on about CRT which I doubt if you know anything about but have nothing to say about a teacher that showed this video to students celebrating the Confederacy.
Wonderful set of priorities you have, Greg.
Florida like several Southern state legislators, pandered to their base with this “celebration”. I find April as the month selected as ironic since that the month that Richmond fell and most of the Confederate Armies surrendered. As to the celebration, I haven’t found any public events scheduled in Florida, maybe it’s a private celebration.
One if not the last Civil War battle fought in Florida was fought close to my home in Marion County Fl. ''The Marshall Plantation Raid'' was epic in more than one way. On March 7th, 1865 the 3rd Infantry (colored) left St. Augustine, FL and traveled via barge down the St. Johns River by night and hid in the swamps during the day finally landing at Fort Gates where they left the river and traveled by foot through the swamps for close to 40 miles and struck the Marshall Plantation which was one of the largest suppliers of sugar for the confederacy.
Per Sgt. Henry S Herman, He wrote the squad captured “25 horses and mules, burnt a sugar mill with 85 barrels of sugar, about 300 barrels of syrup, a whiskey distillery, with a large amount of whiskey and rice, and started on their return, bringing along 95 colored persons, men, women and children, re-crossed the Oclawaha (sic) River, burning the bridge.”
Now with 95 freed slaves in tow, they headed 100 miles back to St.Augustine with the Confederate Home guard and Capt J.J. Dickison 2nd Calvary took up the chase as the raiding party neared protection at St. Augustine the 2nd Calvary was almost on them. At that point, 20 freed slaves stayed behind to distract the Confederates allowing the remain slaves, and the 3rd Infantry made it to the safety of St. Augustine. The 20 that stayed behind split up and led the Confederates deep into the swamps they reversed course and some made it to freedom in St. Augustine and the remainder were captured but were freed a few months later with the end of the Civil War.
The 3rd Infantry (Colored) was presented with several awards for the daring raid hundreds of miles behind enemy lines.
Confederate Memorial Day falls on my birthday and for the last few years we celebrate the Marshall Plantation Raid with a party...
For more on this improbable raid,
To Succeed Where Others Failed: The Untold Story of the Marshall Plantation Raid by Bruce Seaman.
Bruce lives in Ocala and he and I have discussed this mostly unknown piece of history many times and have actually received permission to visit the site. The site is not open to the public to protect it for people that would destroy what little is left of it.
Is that our NT Bruce ?
No, it's not that Bruce pat, but Bruce from Missouri was a real historian on the Civil War.
This is the ''Battle Flag'' of the 3rd Infantry (Colored) the wording is excellent. The raid on the Marshall Plantation was planned by black troops and carried out by black troops there were no white officers or NCOs involved which was very unusual in the Civil War.
The record shows that one white soldier was with them and the speculation is that he had a special talent that none of the other troops did and the guess is that was the ability to guide a barge down the St. John River.
Thanks, Kavika. That raid is a great story.
Thanks Kavika. I didn't know anything about this raid. Very interesting.
So, now liberals firmly believe that parents should have a say in their child's education? Demand for neck braces will skyrocket with that kind of whiplash.
Were conservatives so foolish as to think there would be no backlash ... will demand for laxatives 'skyrocket' in their circles?
A backlash was not only expected, a backlash was the desired result. There's now common ground. Schools cannot ignore the views or concerns of parents. Both sides agree.
Pretty sure most liberals don’t have a problem with parents having a say in their child’s education. Pointing out that the freak outs over CRT - to the point of anti-CRT legislation - is irrational and stupid, is not the same as saying parents have no say.
Why? Why would that be desirable?
It's not.
And yet it exists, apparently. Someone wanted it. And they don’t seem to be in a big hurry to get rid of it.
I looked it up. This isn’t some relic from the 1870s. Florida did this in 2007!
It's an effort to disguise the truth. The Civil War monuments on public land in the South were, almost without exception, not built in proximity to the Civil War, but rather, were erected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, coinciding with the introduction of Jim Crow laws, and later in the 20th century as a reaction to the civil rights movement. Confederate History Month is just another facet of the same impulse.
A bill was brought up in the Florida legislature twice in the last three years to abolish it and has failed both times.
For a true and accurate assessment of the history of the Civil War, perhaps this quote from the Richmond Enquirer (Richmond, VA), April 15, 1856, provides the best insight:
“Freedom is not possible without slavery."
Those who celebrate and promote the glory of the Confederacy must live with that.
The Richmond Enquirer was owned and operated by Thomas Ritchie.
Democrats must live with that. Unless the history of Democrats is sanitized and rewritten.
Your comprehension of the topic displays considerable confusion. Democrats today generally do not celebrate the Confederacy. Republicans do. Republicans promote the myth of the glory of the Confederacy.
Furthermore, sanitizing and rewriting history are activities engaged in by Republicans. The instances of that are numerous and well-documented.
Any quotation from 1820 to about 1970 that extols slavery was more likely than not made by a Democrat. The Democratic Party really was the party of slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow.
It is rather amazing that those wanting a telling of the history of slavery completely ignore the prominent role of the Democratic Party in that history.
That's unadulterated bullshit, demcrats to this day feel African Americans are inferior. And it's amazing how quickly they want to destroy history when it puts THEM in a bad light. What's wrong with preserving truthful history? Democrats are the party of slavery, the party of internment of the Japanese. the party of the klan, the party of racists.
Haven't you heard the mindless bleating of the sheep? they all became republicans. but the idiots can't name 5 prominent politicians who did so. Byrd died a democrat, as did Wallace and all the prominent democrats of the day. And Clinton and Biden will die democrats.
If you really want to confuse them, ask them why the south has become progressively less racist as republicans have taken over, and the Northern states progressively more racist now that democrats control them.
Ever hear of Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrats?
[deleted]
Everyone of them were democrats, and racist. the true history of the south. then they moved North and turned these cities racist.
Most Racist Cities in America 2023 (worldpopulationreview.com)
Look at all the racists clustered in Illinois, i'm sure this shocks no one.
Your story telling is fanciful. Provide an example of a Democrat in 1970 who extolled slavery.
Everyone knows that the Democratic Party in the era of the Civil War was the prominent party that, in the South, supported slavery. To suggest that it is ignored is false and ridiculous.
That statement couldn't be more idiotic.
"In a 1995 interview, Wallace said that he planned to vote for Republican Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election , commenting, "He's a good man. His wife is a born-again Christian woman and I believe he is, too." He also revealed that he had voted for George H. W. Bush , another Republican, in 1992 ."
Not just idiotic but downright stupidly moronic
George Wallace ran for President in 1972.
Ever hear of Nixon's 72 Southern Strategy?
Yeah, the "southern strategy" to win 60% of the vote and 49 states.
He's heard of it but still has his fingers stuck in his ears
In 1964 disaffected Southern racists supported Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat Party and in 1968 George Wallace's American Party. In 1972 Nixon won them over to the gop with his "Southern Strategy" of pandering to white racists...
You are off by 16 years. This isn't hand grenades. Learn some basic history.
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Yes, it was the republicans attempt to get democrats to stop being Piece of shit racists, the democrats who wanted to stay racist moved north, the rest became republicans and slowly made the south less racist than the north.
Yep, the Dixiecrats split the Democratic Party in the south. That opened the door for Republicans. Old news.
If there are any doubts about where the Democratic Party came from; here's the electoral map for the 1952 election
What you dont understand about your babbling - racism is favored by one ideology, not one political party. This was shown clearly in the 1964 Civil Rights law vote in Congress, and it has been the same ever since.
Conservatives opposed civil rights legislation , from both parties. Liberals and moderates from both parties supported the civil rights law.
Tell me how many conservatives there are around and I can tell you, as a general principle, how racially prejudiced a place is.
President Biden said, and i quote, talking about African American Women raising their own children., It's not that they don't want to do a good job, they just don't know what to do.
Democrats constantly tell us that minorities can't get ID's to vote, that we need quotas for hiring and that they need special rules to get into college, by definition that is racist and supported fully by democrats.
To wit - Do conservatives or liberals fly the confederate flag ?
[deleted] so i;m not sure how that is taunting, or stopping her from making snid comments about me. but then again i can understand why someone being called a democrat could be considered a taunt so go ahead.
Racist democrats who the low functioning call republicans,
So illinois is over run with conservatives? it is the state with the most racist cities.
which of these conservative strongholds of racism do you live in again?
And which states are controlled by those same democrats now? Same places these cities are located?
Nixon's 72 Southern Strategy didn't hurt Jimmy Carter in 1976. Democrats remained loyal to their roots.
Eisenhower scared the crap out of Democrats in '52 and '56. Democrats needed to become competitive in the north because they couldn't win elections with only the south. Democrats never abandoned racial politics. Democrats began singing a different tune but they continued to sing about race.
How about in 1987? the future president from the democrat party.
In 1987, when her husband was governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton signed Act 116 that stated “The blue star above the word “ARKANSAS” is to commemorate the Confederate States of America.”
Democrat party have racism as part of their DNA.
There are a lot of conservatives in Chicago. There are few that describe themselves as Republicans because the city is a one party town.
How did they decide that Chicago is one of the most racist cities in America ? Do you know?
1. was the amount of police brutality towards minorities. Virtually none of which is perpetrated by "liberals".
2. was the amount of segregated neighborhoods - again, not something perpetrated by liberals. Cities in the north are more segregated because when a massive number of blacks moved north they displaced "white" neighborhoods, and they were not allowed to rent or buy in certain neighborhoods, and they ended up pouring into the few neighborhoods where they were allowed and welcomed. Over a period of years the black population grew more and more and when they did move into white areas many if not all of the whites moved out. All this has nothing to do with someone being a "liberal". In the south, because the black population was always there and not migrants, the neighborhoods had more integration.
LOL. You are tongue tied.
Biden got 82% of the vote in chicago.
George Wallace was a horrible racist, but can you provide a quote where he extolled slavery?
A lot of conservative Democrats voted for Biden. Do you blame them?
The idea that 82% of Chicago is progressive is insane.
George posted from a site that says Chicago is one of the most racist cities in America. I read the criteria. One of the items was police brutality toward minorities, and another was the amount of segregation in the city or town.
Liberals and progressives do not commit police brutality, and liberals and progressives are not responsible for decades and decades of segregation.
Nope, not without searching for one. But you can do that without me. I suggest using Bing to train the artificial intelligence.
Just like a similar of number of Democrats voted for Obama, and Clinton. That makes them progressives.
A "conservative Democrat" who votes for Obama, Clinton and Biden isn't conservative.
A conservative couldn't vote for Biden. Radical progressivism isn't compatible with conservativism.
erals and progressives do not commit police brutality, and liberals and progressives are not responsible for decades and decades of segregation.
That might be the most preposterous thing you've ever claimed.
Well, if you want to call the Daley family progressives give it your best shot.
Wait until you hear a black denounce the democratic plantation.
You will know what he is talking about.
You should already, though, since the same happens every single time.
Of course they are, particularly the father. Big supporter of the Great Society and LBJ.
You seem to think his racism is somehow incompatible with progressivism, which is odd.
Yes they are, and way to cherry pick
So, you can't provide an example of any Democrat from 1970 who extolled slavery. You can't, because there aren't any and your statement claiming there are is, of course, a fraud.
The son
Fuck off...
What is amazing is that today's Republicans bring up the Democrats are the party of KKK and racists. I find this argument pretty stupid because clearly that’s not what they support anymore, values change over time and some in the republican party still want that old trope to be true, sadly their inability to accept the changes in the two parties is beyond their grasp.
At the core of the effort to discredit the current Democratic Party is the refusal to accept the realignment of the party structure in the mid-20th century.
It started with the New Deal then Truman integrating the military but the actions of Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s with the Voting Rights Act and civil rights completed the change.
As the Dems introduced legislation to improve rights blacks left the republican party and switched to the dems which is where we are at today.
You've heard of alternate facts? These people live in an alternate reality.
Really? Then what was all that bitching about last fall?