Collier County, FL: Climate Propaganda Video Shown to Students – Demands Action

The Collier County School Board has drawn fire for showing the controversial film Disruption: A Call To Act On Climate Change.

Doug Lewis, a parent with a child in the Collier County public schools, wrote the School Board in an email dated May 27th, 2015:

I trust that you can appreciate my concerns as a father pertaining to the use of this [Disruption: A Call To Act On Climate Change] video that (in my opinion and by any fair measure) clearly tends to indoctrinate him and the viewers to a particular point of view.  It even goes beyond this by calling my son and other viewers to do three (3) specific things to act on the controversial issues presented in the video.

As you know, Policy 2240 provides that, “a controversial issue is a topic on which opposing points of view have been promulgated by responsible opinion or likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community.”

The video Disruption: A Call to Act on Climate Change (click on the following link to see the ENTIRE video for your-self (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQsIErJ7-yk), contains many controversial issues and was shown to my son (and I presume other Collier County public school students) without any prior parent notice or parent consent.

Collier County School Board Policy 2240 states:

“The School Board will permit the introduction and proper educational use of controversial issues provided that their use in the instructional program:  A.  is related to the instructional goals of the course of study and level of maturity of the students; B. does not tend to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view; C. encourages open-mindedness and is conducted in a spirit of scholarly inquiry. [Emphasis added]

After reviewing the controversial video Lewis noted:

For example, the issue of whether or not the Keystone XL pipeline should be supported is clearly a controversial issue under [School Board] Policy 2240.  Also, the issue of whether or not we should demand that our nation gets off fossil fuels now is clearly a controversial issue under [School Board] Policy 2240. However, the video attacks the Keystone XL pipeline and encourages its viewers (in this instance, Collier County public school children) to get to work and to get in the street and stand up and say “no more.”  Further, the video promotes the anti-fossil fuel social movement and calls for the globe to “get off fossil fuels now.” By any fair measure, this video tends to indoctrinate and persuade students to a particular point of view.

A significant contributor in the video is a man with known communist ties named Anthony Kapel “Van” Jones.  He is perhaps the last person that Collier County parents would want teaching their school children at taxpayer expense.  Mr. Van Jones is himself a controversial figure.

The video concludes with a demand for action from Collier County students.  Its viewers (in this instance, Collier County public school children) were asked to do three things:

  1. Here is what you can do right now…. “join the march www.peoplesclimate.org (by the way this organization is organizing for future marches and events of civil disobedience),
  2. Send a message to Text DISRUPT to 97779,
  3. and Share this video.

Lewis asks, “On what legal basis, can this School Board permit, at taxpayer expense, my son and Collier County children to be invited in the classroom and during the video to join this radical organization and participate in and facilitate civil disobedience/public protests on these controversial issues? In view of the foregoing and Policy 2240, on what basis did the School Board permit the introduction of this video containing many controversial issues?”

The Collier County School board was already in hot water for placing on their summer reading list pornographic reading materials. Now they are in hot water on global warming (no pun intended).

EDITORS NOTE: To date Mr. Lewis has not received a reply from the Collier County School Board on the showing of Disruption: A Call To Act On Climate Change. We will update this column as new information becomes available.

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