Who is Jenna Barbee – All you need to know
Jenna Barbee, a Florida teacher, is under investigation by the state Department of Education after a school board member objected to showing a Disney movie in her classroom, which she believes was a targeted attack.
At the Hernando County School Board meeting on Tuesday, fifth-grade teacher Jenna Barbee reported her to the Florida Department of Education for allegedly school board member Shannon Rodriguez showing her a Disney movie to her students. From the 2022 movie Strange World. It’s the first Disney movie to feature an openly gay character.
Barbee, a teacher at Winding Waters K-8, said during a public comment that the Disney movie was about her students’ Earth science class and did not contain se**xually inappropriate content. “The word threatening is floating around a lot right now, but it seems that those who use it are using it as a defensive tactic for their own fear-based beliefs without understanding the true meaning of the word,” Barbee said.
Florida educators are banned from lecturing on gender and se**xual identity because of the Parent Rights in Education Act, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis last year. Teachers, also known by critics as “Don’t Say Gay”, have expressed concern and confusion for fear of losing their teaching licenses due to the law’s ambiguous wording or facing criminal penalties for failing to comply. Opponents of the law say the ambiguous statements unfairly target books and classroom material featuring gay and trans characters and themes. During the investigation, the teacher speaks in a public comment.
The Hernando County School District confirmed that the fifth-grade teacher was under investigation for showing “Strange World,” and a parent complained to the director that the film was unsuitable for students. In Barbee’s public comments, she admitted to making mistakes, but showing a Disney movie isn’t one of them, citing her seven-year track record on charges of fraud. Barbee said every student in her class has a signed parental consent form stating that PG movies are allowed. At the end of the school board meeting on Tuesday, Rodriguez said that Barbee had violated school policy by not getting approval from the school board for a particular movie, and that the teacher had “played the victim”. Rodriguez’s daughter is also in Barbee’s class.
“It’s not a teacher’s job to impose beliefs on a child: religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, any of those,” Rodríguez said. “But movies like this allow teachers to open a door, and please hear me, they help teachers open the door to conversations that have no place in our classrooms.”
Rodriguez, who was elected to the school board last fall, received endorsement from the conservative parenting rights group Moms for Liberty. According to Suncoast News, during his short tenure, he argued for “obscenity” and “pornography” on school library shelves and called for the books to be removed.
Rodriguez did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Tallahassee Democrat, part of the USA TODAY Network. The fight between Disney and DeSantis.
“Strange World,” an animated science fiction movie, was released by Disney in late fall 2022. The film is about a group of explorers who embark on an adventure to find an exotic plant that will serve as a powerhouse for their community.
The main character Ethan Clade is gay and his story involves falling in love with another male character named Diazo.
Critics criticized the film as brainwashing, saying it was the latest in a “disastrous year” for Disney. Disney has avoided showing “Strange World” in the Middle East, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria, Uganda, and other countries due to its LGBTQ background.
“In the countries where we operate, we try to share our stories as originals created by us and the artists involved. If we make arrangements for legal or other reasons, they will be as limited as possible. We will not make an edit where we think it will affect the storytelling. Disney said in its Human Rights Policy, updated in 2022, in which case we will not distribute the content in that market.
Disney has been in a legal battle with Governor Ron DeSantis since the company’s leadership spoke out against DeSantis’ parental rights in education law.
The Governor went to war against the Magic Kingdom and escalated back and forth until the Florida Legislature allowed what amounted to a hostile takeover of the Disney ally Reedy Creek Improvement District, created in 1967 to provide Ample entertainment and self-government forces. “Disney has clearly crossed the line in its support of inculcating the gender identity policy of awakening in very young schoolchildren,” DeSantis wrote in his book before the anticipated announcement of the presidential election.
Disney is suing DeSantis in federal court, accusing DeSantis of violating the company’s rights to free speech and alleging that the governor was conducting a “targeted government retaliation campaign” against the company, which DeSantis dismissed as “political”.
