Florida dad speaks out about having mic cut off at school board meeting
The Florida chapter president of No Left Turn in Education, Bruce Friedman, discussed having his microphone cut off at a school board meeting while pressing the district on inappropriate books.
EXCLUSIVE – A Florida school board cut off a dad's microphone, saying that the content he was reading was "pornography" as he tried to expose the materials he said were in schools.
The Clay County School District dad, Bruce Friedman, told Fox News Digital, "These books are so vile that reading any excerpt that I captured will end this interview."
"Somebody failed drastically in their mission to protect children," said Friedman, the president of Florida's No Left Turn in Education, a group focused on exposing indoctrination in U.S. public schools. "As soon as I announced that I was going to read from some books that parents… found in the public school libraries that are clearly pornographic, [they] had the mic cut off."
At a June 30 school board meeting, Friedman began to read from one of the books.
"I'm going to read things; if there's children watching, cover their ears," he said at the meeting.
One of the books the dad raised at the school board meeting was "Lucky" by Alice Sebold, which entails a story of a college girl who was raped and included details of the attack. The Destiny Discover online library software in Fleming Island High School and Orange Park High School in Clay County included the title "Lucky."
"I'm going to stop you right there, sir," Friedman was told. "Turn off his microphone, please."
"Why?" Friedman asked.
"The problem is, sir, that these meetings are broadcast, there are people at home that are watching it on YouTube. There are people that are watching it on community television. Are you going to listen? Or are you going to run your mouth?"
Dad accuses Florida's Clay County School District of having inappropriate books in its libraries. (Fox News)
The dad was told by the school board that he would not be allowed to read "pornography" on the broadcast, as it violated the law.
"There are federal and state laws that prohibit you from saying the things that you're getting out to say on television. There are state laws that prohibit and federal communications laws that prohibit you from publishing these things to a child. You don't have the ability at this point to determine who's watching the television show. And for you to say, ‘everybody cover your ears’ just doesn't cut it," the dad was told.
Bruce Friedman of No Left Turn in Education, speaks out at the Clay County School District in Green Cove Springs, Florida. (Fox News )
Friedman then protested, stating he would want the floor back.
"You'll get it back, but you'll get it back to talk about something besides reading pornography into a public television set," the dad was told.
Fox News Digital reached out to the school board but did not immediately receive a response.
At one point, Friedman went up to one of the school board members to put the triboard poster he created right in front of him.
Friedman became an advocate to protect children in schools from curricula he deems to be "poison" because he "has skin in the game." He wants his 15-year-old son to be in the public school system and come home unharmed.
The dad had previously placed his now 15-year-old son in a New York public school for kindergarten and first grade, which caused "considerable harm" to him.
Clay County School District school board meeting on June 30, 2022. (Fox News )
"In my experience, people don't get off the couch until it's on fire. People don't work to protect their children until they're harmed. In my case, the same applies. I sent my son to New York… public school for kindergarten and first grade — they did considerable harm to my boy," he said. "That is why I'm here — I never shook it off. I never stopped fighting. We got him into a private school promptly after first grade, but the damage was done. It took five years, in my opinion, to put him back on the right track."
The dad describes his son as "bright," "gifted" and "a fine young man who is considerably smarter than I am."
"He makes me proud, but I am not going to stick him in a school with groomers and pedophiles and twisted sick people that think these… books and many like them are okay to present to a child," he said. "They are not okay. There's no literal literary value to any of this. It's poison."
Friedman also weighed into the current debate on Drag Queen Story Hour performers.
"People are arguing about things like Drag Queen Story Hour, whether or not is it appropriate for children to learn that other kinds of persons and lifestyles exist," he said.
"I saw this recently, so I'm going to repeat it. We shouldn't be asking whether or not it's okay for our children to sit in on a Drag Queen Story Hour, we should be asking why the drag queens want an audience of children."
Drag queen "Pickle" reads from a book during the Drag Queen Story Hour program at the West Valley Regional Branch Library on July 26, 2019, in Los Angeles. (David McNew/Getty Images)
In addition to schools around the county introducing sexual topics to kids, Friedman said he was concerned about critical race theory.
"In my opinion," he said, "[it] is the worst piece of any curriculum to ever be presented to an American child."
"It is so much worse than anyone could possibly believe that it's mind-boggling. To be prepared for that battle, I took courses as if I was going to be required to teach critical race theory. I know it that well. I know exactly how bad it is, and it is bad for children of every color," he said.
Friedman said that CRT has alternative names such as diversity, equity and inclusion; as well as intersectionality and inclusivity.
"All of that is the same junk. And all of it is designed to divide us and make us hate each other. Our children deserve better. They should be taught reading, writing, arithmetic. Put them on the bus and send them home safe. Do your job. Stay in your lane," he said.
"No good comes of this poison. Thank God [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis is helping us get it out," he said.
The Florida dad praised Gov. Ron DeSantis for cracking down on critical race theory. (REUTERS/Joe Skipper)
"The destruction of the nuclear family is one of their goals. Anything that sterilizes children, weakens the family or otherwise overwhelms and burdens society to the point where people would be desperate and would fall naturally to rely on their government is their goal. Their further goal is power — power over the parents, power over their children," he said.
"I don't believe that the unions… have children as number one in their mission statement. Their first goal is to maintain the status quo at any cost. And if children suffer, well, life's unfair."
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Friedman believed indoctrination was part of "Marxist" goals:
"They won't be happy until we're all equal; socialism is shared misery. [But] we're going to do better. We have a constitution."
Clay County School District released a statement to Fox News Digital which said that they "always" welcome "parent involvement, participation, and feedback."
"Per our board policy, constituents are allotted three minutes during a school board meeting to address an agenda item prior to the vote on the item," the statement said.
"When addressing the Board, since our meetings are televised, we must abide by FCC laws and regulations," they added. "Clay County District Schools has a policy in place regarding instructional materials and challenges and parents can complete a request for a review form located on our district website. Once the form is received, the material in question is then pulled from circulation and reviewed by a curriculum council committee, and then a final decision is made regarding the removal of the material."