Lawsuit filed to Stop the Political Indoctrination of Collier County, Florida Students

Collier County, FL – Florida Citizens Alliance has decided, “Enough is enough!”  We are now an active participant along with Collier parents in a lawsuit for an emergency injunction to stop this “flawed” textbook adoption process. This lawsuit was filed today, May 31st, 2017 in The Circuit Court for the 20th Judicial Circuit in and for Collier County (see a copy of the filed complaint).

The Collier County School Board (CCPS) has violated Florida Sunshine Law and ignored at least four  Florida statutes, all at the expense of our 46,000 plus students who deserve the “highest quality instructional materials of professionalism and historical accuracy”. Quote: FS 1003.42

We strongly believe the School Board here in Collier County has violated Chapter 128, Florida’s sunshine law and at least four other Florida Statutes including FS 1003.42, FS 1006.28, FS 1006.31(2), and FS 1006.283.

As parents, grandparent and taxpaying community members, we demand that the Collier School Board pause the current process and start the adoption process over on June 1st for three overriding reasons:

1. The text book adoption process, that the prior board authorized and that has been used under  the current Board’s supervision, violates Florida Sunshine law (Chapter 286 of the Florida Statutes).
2. This process included hand-picked reviewers with an extreme political bias. Many of these reviewers do NOT represent Collier demographics and have turned this process into biased and political indoctrination.
3. The Social Studies materials Collier School Board members are considering to adopt are riddled with violations of several Florida laws including FS 1003.42, FS 1006.28, FS 1006.31(2), and FS 1006.283.

To approve both the process and any of the materials considered….we repeat, any of these materials, the Collier School Board not only violates the School Board’s legal/constitutional responsibility but also is fiducially a major waste of budget and taxpayer money.

THIS IS NOT A PARTISAN ISSUE. IT IS ABOUT OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE, following FLORIDA LAWS and adopting FACTUAL, UNBIASED TEXTBOOKS that are not used to indoctrinate our children.

This is three year adoption process. There is no rush and the process can be corrected by following Florida laws.

Reluctantly, after numerous and varied interactions to get Collier School Board members to honor Florida Statutes, we have concluded that our only course of action is to seek an emergency injunction to stop this injustice to each and every student, parent and community member in Collier County.

According to Florida Statute, the Collier School Board is constitutionally responsible for the Instructional materials- NOT the Superintendent, NOT the FL Dept. of Education!

RELATED ARTICLE: San Diego school district sued over anti-Islamophobia campaign

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