Published on February 20, 2023 at 2:44 pm
A substitute teacher in Jacksonville was fired after video he posted on social media showed rows of empty bookshelves in Mandarin Middle School’s library, an action Duval County Public Schools deemed a violation of the social media and cellphone policy.
The teacher, Brian Covey, told News4JAX he posted the video to expose the public to the impact of new state-wide laws requiring the mass review of all library media and classroom materials. Several teachers across the state have been sharing similar photos and videos of bookshelves in an effort to reveal how school districts are responding to those new Florida laws.
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The school district says Covey’s video didn’t tell the full story. On Friday, three weeks after Covey’s video was posted, the district’s communications team posted a reply: a video showing what appears to be the same library from another angle, and shows several book-lined shelves.
Read the rest of this story at News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.
