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News 89 nine.

Good morning.

I'm Ian Shindler and it's Friday, which means it's time for our first coast week in review.

Among our topics, Florida man and one local woman emerges top Trump appointees School book removals more than double.

A report clears Duva superintendent of racial bias, but finds he routinely mistreated employees.

Political infighting begin even before the new school board gets sworn in, and the state may be getting a break from the record setting hurricane season.

As Sara makes the surprise turn.

To talk about all that and more, I'm joined by an all star panel this morning, Anthony Austin, evening anchor at First Coast News.

Hi, Anthony.

Good morning.

In very early morning.

Yes, it is.

David Bauerlein, metro reporter at the Florida Times-Union.

Hi, David.

Good morning, everybody.

Good morning.

Ann Maxwell investigative reporter at News four, Jax High and I and thanks for having me.

And Megan Balakot, educatio reporter at Jacksonville today.

Good morning, Megan.

Good morning, man.

So let's start with some big news on the state's political front with a number of high profile Florida Floridians getting tapped for seats in the new Trump administration.

David Bauerlein, this is something that you've been covering.

Give us a lowdown on who's been tapped and who's going where.

So for the Trump administration, in terms of from Florida, Matt Gaetz, who was until very recently a congressman from northwest Florida, is going to be nominated for attorney general.

And then you have Michael Waltz.

He's a congressman from just south of us who is going to be nominated to be the national security adviser, kind of Southern St Johns County have really, really big roles.

Of course, chief of staff is going to be Susie Wiles.

He's very well-known i Jacksonville political circles.

So you have those three and then you have, of course, Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida who has been nominated to be secretary of state.

So, yeah, I mean, there's degrees of the sort of acceptance or maybe acceptance wrong word, degrees of reaction to those particular picks.

I think there seem to be a lot of shock to Matt Gaet as attorney general selection, Nate Ben Rose, a columnist for us and does a lot of statewide opinion columns.

Now, even Nate was shocked by that one.

So that tells you something in terms of because he's really bee covering this whole idea of how Florida's influence on the Trum administration and vice versa.

So that's probably going to be a an interesting pick to see how that goes through Senate education.

Partially interesting because Matt Gaetz was investigated by the agenc that he is being tapped to name, and he was investigated for some allegations of sex trafficking.

He was not charged, but he wa under investigation by his own, you know, Congress, by the ethics Committee when he resigned suddenly.

Right.

And so because he resigned, that means the repor that was supposed to be dropped today was no longer released because he's no longer a sitting member of Congress.

So they say they've lost jurisdiction over him.

But there are several senators who have said, look, it's part of our advising consent.

We need that report so that we know who the person is, that we are appointing attorney general.

And it could be added that, yes, Matt Gaetz was investigated by the Justice Department and cleared.

So was the president of the president elect Trump.

Yeah.

So, you know, there's this ide he's going to go in and kind of reform or burn the place down, whatever your view might be.

You also reported on kind of adjacenc to some of those appointments.

You know, you mentioned Susie Wiles, who's well-known here.

She was chief of staff for a few mayors and managed campaigns for Rick Scott, Ro DeSantis and then Donald Trump.

But her daughter is actually gaining influence in D.C. with kind of an expansion of her responsibilities with a consulting group.

Yeah, without a doubt.

So her daughter is Katie Wiles, who I worked as a communications chief during Lenny Kerr's administration.

So it's kind of like a like mother like daughter thing.

You know, Susie Wiles went up through city hall, was the chief of staff, a director of strategic initiatives under Mayor's Delaney.

And then Payton reall was known as a really consummate communicate her in terms of getting the message out for the administration in different ways.

And then her daughter also was in that role at city hall in the Kerry administration.

And Susie Wiles went on to become a lobbyist.

And now her daughter, Katie, is not sure if she's actually a lobbyist, but she is working for a firm that does consulting and lobbying work.

And the founder of that is a guy named Carlos Trujillo, which I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.

He really wired into the Trump world and was really big on helping them get their Latino vote out and also a big ally of Marco Rubio.

So I've even seen some reporting that he might be have a role in the State Department as well.

So, yeah, so, you know, we know when Trump does well, wins the election.

You know, there's some professional benefits that come along with it.

And so Kati Walsh will have an expanded role in both a Jacksonville office and a Washington, D.C. office with that firm.

And and it's going to be up to Governor Ron DeSantis to replace Senator Marco Rubio.

He has not been on the same page with Donald Trump recently.

They were allies at one time.

But this is, you know, basically a lot of power that's been handed to him by the Trump administration because this is a obviously a very significant position and one that the governor ma himself have some interest in.

There's also a Donald Trump's daughter in law, Lara Trump, who's interested possibly in the position.

So it's going to be an interesting choice to watch, right?

Yeah it'll definitely be interesting to see what he decides to do.

You would.

Thank you know how he's much closer to Trump In the past, he would probably do something in line with what the president elect would want to see him do, as it's not hard to see him, you know kind of falling in line there.

Yeah, that's yeah, I mean, I think there is a sense, Anthony you know, statewide that there and nationwide you know the people are believe that this is an election mandate and that Republicans are going to follow and fall in line with basically what the president is asking for.

Yeah, I believe that that is definitely going to happen.

You know, it's interesting because we know that Rubio and Matt Gaetz, they will need Senate confirmation.

Waltz won't need that.

But just kind of lookin at going back to the controversy with Matt Gaetz, I've seen Democrats and Republicans who are kind of questioning that, as we just mentioned earlier.

In fact, one of the the speaker of the House Mike Johnson, when he was asked if the investigation should disqualify Gates from leading the Department of Justice as attorney general, he said, quote, It's not my decision is the president's decision.

Hmm.

So kind of just taking a neutral stance, I guess you would kind of say in a way.

Well, maybe not too neutral, but just saying, you know, what's going to be the president's decision?

We're going to do whatever he decides.

Yeah.

And make these, you know, run the gamut.

I mean, I think people look at Rubio as kind of a more traditional choice.

Mike Wallace is a former Green Beret.

So he does have military experience.

But there's one other Florida wild card that you've been watching, which is Tiffany Justice, um, who is the founder of Moms for Liberty.

What wha what are you watching with her?

Yes, that's definitely a wild card because the rumors that are circulating say that he is considering appointing her as secretary of education.

But at the same time, he's also on record in many different times saying that he wants to dismantle the Department of Education.

And so I don't know how you'd have a secretary of education without a Department of Education, but you know, who knows the world.

Yeah.

And she she has expressed interest in the position.

I mean, if appointed, if selected, she's kind of said, Yeah.

To serve I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I mean just maybe anothe example of you know the um, the, you know, the disruption that kind of is intentional with some of these agencies is on the part of the the president elect that he basically, you know, wants to dismantle some of these institutions.

Right.

You know and as the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, I think that Tiffany Justice is well known for some being a disruptive factor in Florida's school board system, surely becaus as Moms for Liberty has grown, they have their influenc with school boards, has grown, as she was in South Florida and I want to say Indian River school board member there.

And it's just it's interesting to see that, you know, her her influence kind of grow and spread and think about wha that might look like nationwide.

Yeah, well if you're just joining us, I'm talking to Anthony Austin and Maxwell, Megan Melkote and David Bauerlei about the week's big headlines.

And we want to hear from you.

Join the conversation.

Give us a call at 9045492937.

You can also email comments or questions too.

First class connected WJC talk.

You can also tag us on social or even watch our program livestream right now on Facebook and the WJC YouTube page.

I want to move on now to a report, Megan and and that you've both been covering this week about the Duval County Superinte It's a report that was just issued but began a while ago.

So, Megan, where did this investigation begin and what did the report find?

Well, the investigation began in April.

We covered it in May and June.

And in the midst of Dr. Berger's interviews for superintendent here, he started out in Lee County.

He came from Lee County.

And right before he applied t be superintendent here in Duval, he was the subject of a whistleblower complaint that said he was bullying this employee that filed the complaint.

There was an allegation of racial racial discrimination as well.

And so Lee County opened up an investigation on that from an independent firm.

And at the time, we were tracking it because we had a tip about the whistleblower complaint, the school board here said that they knew about the complain that they had and due diligence or they're coming, quote, to investigate, you know, what was going on.

And they were satisfied with Dr. Bernier as a candidate.

And of course, they did hire him.

And we didn't know at that time when you were doing that reporting the specifics of the investigation, just that they were familiar with the outlines of it and they were comfortable with what it what they were they were still comfortable with him as a candidate.

Right, right, right.

So at the time, I had as I was reporting the story I talked with a lot of people, many of whom are actually in this report and the the story tha we were hearing at the time does line up with the results from the report.

And so when the report came out this week, there's it cleared him of the racial allegations, the racial discrimination allegations.

But it doesn't paint a very nice picture of what he's like to work for in his office.

Right.

So and he was accused of initially bullying, racial discrimination, making derogatory comments about women, as Megan says.

You know, some of those were not substantiated.

But he doesn't come across as a very nice boss.

I mean, the report found that he was sort of universally unpleasant to his employees.

So.

Right.

They interviewed 22 people, I believe, including 18 current employees of the school district and two former employees.

And there were only three who kind of, you know, three employees who disputed, you know, what was being sai about the bullying allegations.

So in the end, I'll read a quote from the report.

The evidence substantiates that Dr. Bernier often spoke to his chief operating officer, that the complaint was about using profanity and in ways witnesses described as dehumanizing, insulting, loud and disrespectful, impeding his ability to perform his duties and making it difficult for him to meet his expectations through the creation of unreasonable deadlines.

Kind of the sense you get from reading the report is that, you know he treated some other employees similarly and had a temper and maybe left people walking on eggshells as a result.

One of the allegations that was substantiated was that the report found that he appeared to regard some female employees less favorably than men.

It did clear him of makin derogatory comments about women.

And from what I recall, it said, you know, the evidence indicates he may have a bias towards women, but it didn't really commit one way or the other.

They couldn't find enough, you know, using the B-word, things like that.

The report didn't substantial those allegations.

So, I mean, we should say, you know, we've invited th superintendent on this program.

I know both of you have made efforts to contact him.

What are we hearing from him directly in the wake of this report?

So far, his spokespeople are saying that he's off to a great start.

And Duval that he's committed to, he recognizes the report, shows some areas for improvement, and he's committed to improving his interactions with personnel.

And they're like I said, you know, that he' off to a great start in Duval.

And are you hearing anything different now?

The same thing.

And we just got that statement from the DCP spokesperson.

And they also note that Dr. Bernier was forthright with the board about the investigation.

And like Megan said, you know, board members looked into this and were aware of it.

And so it seems like, you know, this might cause waves and chatter, but as far as policy goes or, you know, anything operationally, substantial decreases isn't going to make much of a difference, at least from what we're seeing so far.

Anthony Austi One thing that stood out to me in this story was that the superintendent didn't cooperate with the investigation, that there had been a request that he, you know, talk to the person who was doing the report.

He initially offered to provide some written answers, but then his attorney just stopped responding.

And so during all the weeks that this was happening, he didn't he didn't offer any explanation or response to address the claims against him.

Right.

And I think that is concerning, especially for the team here in Duval County public schools who might be under hi when it comes to his leadership.

When you hear about that reports that that was happening, that he wasn't responding.

But the school board, they have basically said that they were aware of these allegations and that he was forthrigh with them, that he did mention about the situation in Lee County.

But I can see the concern that are there because of this.

Yeah.

Dan, I mean, David Bauerlein, I'm curious.

There were allegations in the report that people suffered health impacts that they fel that they were actually having.

They cited things like depression, high blood pressure, having to take time off work because of the stressful environment.

And I mean, just knowing how the system works, it sort of calls to question you know, is there a legal risk, you know, for somebody who's leading, you know, a school district like this?

Is that something that the Duval County School Board and the district in general are going to want to watch for so that they're not, um, you know, engaging in any kind of situation that might attach to liability of some kind?

Well, I would think they would.

Yeah.

You would think they would want to have some sort of process in place to keep that communication open from.

You know, obviously, the superintendent is in charge of hiring his or her staff.

But if you have this history then that really would behoove the board for a lot of reasons to understand what's going on over there in that office.

You know, it's you thin about a superintendent, usually a superintendent of a school is someone who has come up through the ranks as a schoolteacher and maybe has a sort of demeanor or personality that kind of reacts well.

I mean, what could be more pressure filled than teaching, you know, 30 teenagers in a clas they maybe don't want to be in?

So, you know and that's generally the sense you get of superintendents.

They kind of have that personality.

You know, i sounds like the superintendent is different in terms of his personality.

And maybe that that's gets results.

And it's sort of a hard charging type of persona.

But yeah, if it's a toxic workplace and people are feeling those kind of impacts, then you don't want that to b replicated here in Duval County, that is for sure.

Yeah.

Take a call from Linda in Mandarin.

Good morning, Linda.

Go ahead.

Good morning.

I was I don't know if you guy are aware, but I was wondering, do we know what the terms of his contract since the school board said they were aware of these charges?

I'm hoping they have a clawback provision in his contract that if we get notice of this ongoing behavior here, that they will be able to terminate him without a big massive payout to get rid of him.

I hope you guys have some information.

If not, let's start looking into that, because if they knew about this behavior from the whistleblower, I'm hoping we have somebody tight on the negotiation end to put a clawback in his contract.

Thanks.

Thanks, Linda.

It's a good question.

And I don't know the terms of his contract in terms of if he's fired for cause or if they are dissatisfied with him at some point.

So I'd have to look at his contract specifically.

I believe that there is a clause for being fired because there's nothing specifically about these types of allegations or like a plan in that case, in his contract.

But, you know, he was able to negotiate an exit from Lee County i the midst of these allegations.

It was still pretty at pretty beneficial to him on his way out.

So I think it probably would have to do with how he negotiates a potential exit.

You know, and we should say that the district's both spokesperson, Tracy Pierce, said, quote, Dr. Bernier acknowledge that the report reflects areas in which he can improve, particularly with interpersonal interactions with senior leaders.

And he's committed to that improvement.

And so I would guess it's fair to say that this report, if nothing else, would be a wake up call and he's probably kind of workin comment from Lynell on Facebook, She says, I've noticed that one of the newly elected Duval County School board members is openly anti LGBTQ and seems vulnerable to government controls the weather disinformation.

This is concerning considering his role in our education system.

So let's shift gears if we can.

It is another school relate topic, but it kind of has to do with how this new school boar is starting to meld as a unit.

The new members haven' been sworn in yet, right?

Megan?

But they're they'll be sworn in on Tuesday.

Okay.

But they had this workshop.

Yeah.

So they had a workshop this week where they gathere the new, you know, the members elect in to start some process type of discussions.

And one of the things that they were discussing was their leadership for the coming year because the school boar amongst itself selects a chair and a vice chair for one year term every year in November.

So they were discussing who that was going to be in this case.

And so it was the first opportunity that we had to see the new members and that with the new make up of the board was going to be in it.

It was pretty interesting.

Yeah.

As one of the members said during this, you know, kind of spicy discussion, he said it's starting out pretty bad.

Let's take a listen to some of that meeting.

I am reading the writing on the wall and this is going to be a continuation of the punishment that I received for not being a good Republican when I voted for that.

I think I understand where we are.

So I think I know where we are in talking about nonpartisanship.

And now you're talkin about being a good Republican.

I mean, I think that's what you just give it up.

I think it's really smart.

You've got your people, your oh, my gosh, we're good.

Cindy.

So obviously tense moments there.

And we should say that initial exchange was started by Cindy Pierson.

She was basically trying to make a second run at being vice chair and is in the minority.

I think it's safe to say with this new block of like minded board members.

So and what I mean, remind us what the how the board makeup has changed since this last election.

I was listening to some of that workshop and I heard Darrell Willy, who's the outgoing chair, say Cindy Pierson and I are the lead members of the new board not backed by Moms for Liberty.

So they have a solid majority.

And there was, you know, a solid Republican presence on the board before.

But I think it's safe to say, you know, is probably moved rightward.

So it'll be interesting to see, you know, how they react to these tough changes happening at the school district right now with budget shortfalls, school closures, things like that.

Yeah, And Anthony, the current chair, made the case that he believes that there's a nee for balance in the leadership.

He was supporting Cindy Pierson as the vice chair because he said, you know, the others, the chair seat is basically expected to go to Charlotte Joyce She's a Moms for Liberty candidate, also endorsed by the governor as a majority of the school board is now.

Five of seven were moms for liberty endorsements and for seven were supported by Governor Ron DeSantis.

And so Chair Willy was saying, you know, we believe that we need to represent the other parts of our district.

Right.

And I think that's bee a concern for a lot of people, because I know when we were kind of covering the elections and the new school board members, there were concern from people in the community about this, about the number of candidates who were backed by Moms for Liberty, because if you don't agree with their stance on situations, we have another portion of our community that don't.

And when you're looking at this, you're concerned about your child's education.

And within Duval County public schools and you're seeing this on th board and the reflection of it, you kind of wonder, is my voice going to be heard if I don't agree necessarily with what they have to say?

What changes are they going to make to the district and to my child's education?

Yeah, David the school board is also looking at possibly tacklin some particularly dicey issues.

It's already come up about whether they should change the policy surrounding their sex education program, whether they should change that from an opt out education offering or an opt in.

And I've been around long enoug to know that the sex education conversatio is always hard in this district, and it always seems to be kind of a push pull about where we need to be to give kids what they need to be safe and healthy and concerns, particularly with this board, you know, which is driven by a parental involvement mission, that there could be that tension again.

Yeah, I think the answer to that will be whatever the Moms for Liberty position is on that.

And that's what the school board will end up approving.

I don't know what the Moms fo Liberty position is on that, but there's much more of a emphasis on that.

The sort of assumption that you're opting out unless you opt in because the parents should be able to decide on behalf of their children.

So I think there's going to be a lot more of that in terms of a lot of things are people are given the chance to opt out of stuff or even the assumption is they don't have to do it unless they opt in kind of thing.

And if I could just bring up one thing real quick in terms of the Republican versus Democrat, you know, there was a surprise when Reggie Blunt defeated Hank Rogers for that final school board seat that was still open.

I was at a Democratic Party rally before the electio and Hank Rogers spoke at that.

And the Democrats were ver clear that if you're a Democrat, this is the person that we are backing in this race.

I went to a Republican get out the vote rally and Reggie Blunt was namechecked there and saying, you know, go, go support Reggie Blunt.

He's the guy for us and we need to increase our majority on that school board.

So even though they don't have Republican or Democrat, that's clearly out there in terms of how they fit into those political ideologies, it's sort of partizan with without being partizan.

And I want to ask you, Meghan, because that came up in that meeting.

There was discussions about, you know, hey, the they just voted down a ri a return to Partizan school boards and let's be non partizan.

But there was a comment made by one of the school board members, um, Lori, Lori Hershey at the end saying, well, we kind of know the lay of the land based on this election and our leadership should reflect the realities of this recent election.

And so obviously that is a right word.

And Republican shift.

It is.

And that's a political statement in and of itself.

But I think that it's interesting to me in this context, because school boards are suppos again, the state voter voted to keep them nonpartizan.

And so I actually spoke with Cindy Pearson yesterday, and we were talking about how she she said, you know, there's either aa5 to two majority or a62 6 to 1 majority, depending on how you count, because some people because Cindy Pearson is a registered Republican, some people automatically lump her together with the Moms for Liberty candidates.

And so I asked her, I said, how do you know?

How do you count then?

Is it a52 or a61?

And she says, Well, I'm nonpartisan.

I got into this because I'm nonpartisan.

I don't want to brin my politics into school board.

So it will be interesting to see how.

But she was the one who was out who said, I think I'm being punished because as a Republican, I wasn't good Republican and I supported I mean, she essentially got primaried.

Right.

Right.

Because they had a she lost she had the support of the Moms for Liberty, I believe if I could be mistaken on that.

But last election, four years ago, she certainly had the support of her party four years ago, but she lost it because she didn't support some of these more extreme positions during COVID.

And I think there were some other issues as well as she lost the support of her party and then got basically primaried by Becky Nathan, some who ran against her.

But, you know, in the end, she still won the election.

So we've got a call from Jay in Mandarin.

Good morning, Jay.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I have a question.

And first, if I'm not wrong, haven't the applicatio or the request for homeschooling in Duval County increase since all these things happened?

Am I wrong about that?

And all these things?

You mean sort of post COVID or.

Well, since the election, the Moms for Liberty, like all these things, the political injectio into the education in Duval and the request or people want to do more homeschooling have that increased am I wrong about one thing?

Sure.

I don't think you're wrong.

I mean, certainly there's more incentive now for people to homeschool in terms of the money that can follow a student.

But I don't know.

I mean, the latest numbers particularly I don't know the latest numbers either, but I know that over the past couple of years, there's also been changes in the voucher programs that provide funding to homeschooling families.

So I don't know that they've expanded.

They've expanded and also been to private schools.

They've expanded.

And so I don't know that it would be you'd be able to draw a definite line between all of these.

You know, the ideologica makeup of the board has changed.

And so people are trying to homeschool versus, well, there's more voucher funding out there for people making homeschooling choice.

Right.

And and Max.

Well, I mean, obviously that split those those changes where people are leaving public schools either to go to charters or homeschooling or private schools with those tax dollars that attached to them now is making life a lot more district difficult for the district financially, Right, Because the money follows the students.

So when you know like we've seen the enrollment in Duval Count public schools drop the funding goes with it.

And so that makes it difficul to, you know, allocate resources more difficult.

And so that's why, you know, you have these schools that are closing to try to save money.

But definitely, I think the voucher program is a huge factor in that.

Yeah.

And David, those impacts of school closures, I mean, those are the kind o thing that we don't really know the impact until maybe even years down the line.

Oh, in terms of the education quality and yes, without a doubt.

I mean, it's not going to be like a before after right away when schools closed.

But yeah, the overall direction of public education is it's kind of being sliced and diced over time and know the big benefit of a the big attribute of a public school system is, you know, there's a commonalit where everyone in the community is going together to the same school.

You know, it's that' being lost because it's becoming really balkanized and fractionalized in terms of how people get their education when they're growing up.

You know, I grew up in a in a town where everybody went to school together, and that was a good thing I always thought of, because you saw people after school and, you know, work with them at the fast food restaurant and played sports and you also had class together with them.

But becoming less and less the case, I think.

Now it is interesting.

I just want to say that because I was just thinking that what you just said, because everyone who I went to kindergarten with, that's who I graduated with.

But looking at the school systems now, it's all so divided when it comes to choice and where you can send your child in and almost along political lines.

Right, Right.

Yeah.

A question that Jay brought up.

My producer, Stacy, just noted that The Washington Post found that from 2017 to 2020 Florida's home school population grew nearly 70 times faster than the state's public school enrollment and was among the highest rates in the nation.

That's according to the analysis by The Washington Post.

So to Jay's point, that doe appear to be the case in droves.

So I want to move o to another school board topic.

But if you're just joining us we're talking about the week's big headline with our panel of journalists.

And you can joi our conversation at 9045492937.

You can also emai first Coast Connect at WJC, talk or tag us on social media.

So one more book or school topic is that is book removals and that is something sort of linked closely to the Moms for Liberty movement.

But this new report just came out showing that after last year's record number of book removals from school shelves and school library shelves, that that number actually more than doubled.

Anthony, I think that that came as a surprise to a lot of people.

Right.

You know, Clay Count actually leads the entire state in the number of books remove from classrooms and libraries.

That's information coming from the Florida Department of Education.

And something I think that's important to mention in Clay County, they confirmed that 94% of the books removed was because of one community member, and that was Bruce Friedman, who represents the organization No Left Turn in Education.

So some of the books were moved in Clay County, a song of ice and Fire, Slaughterhouse-Five Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, A Song of Solomon, and also The Fountainhead as well.

But more of more than the 700 books removed from libraries across the state, 287 came from Clay County.

So it's interesting to see these numbers with the book removals.

And I think what's interesting as well about the the gentleman that's behind so many of those is that he doesn't have a status in the child in the district.

So and that is something that the governor was forced to shift on after this.

You know, greater parental involvement.

David allowed parents to complain, to have books removed, at least pending a review.

And so there was this sort of wholesale removal of books as they were being evaluated.

Is this appropriate for these age groups?

Should we put it back on the shelves?

But kind of the the immediate response was tha they were removed as a default.

The state has now said, you know, there's there's got to be a limit that and and sort o rolled that back a little bit, which is good.

I mean, the idea that you go in with the presumption you're almost like the book is almost guilty until proven innocent.

And so yeah, you deprive students of what are really classic works of literature.

I mean, Anthony was mentioning I mean, there's a lot of other books like tha that, you know, the the sort of the image of these book removal cases is, you know, graphic depictions of sex.

And you wouldn't want your child to read that unless you kne and gave him permission.

Okay.

But a lot of these books are just in the mainstream of great American novels.

And but, you know, the ones that would really probably excite students to read and give the a lifelong interest in reading, and they're just title after title like that.

I mean, one of my favorite authors is Flannery O'Connor.

There's a book that was removed All the Good Man is Hard to Find.

It's a collection of stories.

It's there's I've read that a few years ago.

There is nothing in there that someone would say Oh my God, that's like prurient sex in there.

And there's no sex in there, you know?

So I just find the whole thing just a little bit, you know, strange.

And and it's good that they have made it harder to remove them and and as opposed to it being a default or is out until somebody decides it's now appropriate to go back again.

Yeah, I thought it was interesting because Wicked was removed from bookshelves in St John's County.

Of course we know Wicked.

There's the new movie coming out.

The book inspired the Broadway production, which was very popular.

So to hear that that was removed, I just kind of wonder what was the issue Those who challenged it took with it.

Yeah, and it's interesting because, I mean, we talk a lot about classics that wind up on that list or books that we may remember.

Like David says, for a lot of other reasons other than maybe some, you know, mentions of sex or violence.

But Clay County also banned pretty much every Stephen King title that there is 6 to 9 books and, you know, I think back t when I was in junior high school and those were the kind of books that really got kids excited about the idea of reading something just for pleasure.

You know, that they couldn't put down and they would pass to their friends.

And, you know, I know peopl that probably wouldn't have read otherwise for pleasure were it not for like an exposure to Stephen King.

Yeah.

And like, I saw the Game of Thrones books were on there.

Yeah, kind of books.

Kids, you know, you think would be really interested in reading and kind of listening to David talk and seein some of the books on the list.

It seems like there's some at least that are on there for depictions of violence.

Like I remember In A Good Man is hard to find.

There's a shooting.

I read some of that in college, I believe.

And you know, you think about like maybe violence in Stephen King novels.

And that also seems interesting considering, you know, what kids have access to on the Internet or video games or movies.

I mean that, right?

You know, and that could be well, yeah, maybe that is the case.

And and that was the reason allowed for it.

But, you know, okay, well, every play of Shakespeare falls in that category.

And, you know, Bible.

So, you know, that's true of The Odyssey Iliad.

Where do you draw the line then?

And you basically, you know, it's just it's an overreach.

I think.

Right?

Because, you know, I'm pretty sure we all had to rea Romeo and Juliet in high school.

We know how that.

Yeah.

You know, So not well.

Not well.

Yeah.

Megan, this was the report that came from the schools, but the National Free Speech Group in America actually had much, much bigger numbers.

And so, you know, when the schools, the school report itself said that there's, you know, a doubling more than 700 books removed from libraries across the state, and America found that it was 4500 in Florida.

Um, and maybe some of thos are duplicate titles from county to county, but still way more than any other state in the country.

Yeah, my understanding i they used a more broad standard to say what was coming out.

So I don't know exactly how they defined that, but I do know that, for instance, and I think this is true of all districts, but in St John's County specifically, if a librarian, a school librarian had a book that was damaged, let's say a child took a home and left out the rang she needed to replace the book, she still had to go through the same approval process to take it to the committee and then take it, you know, to the same very strict to get it approved to get a copy of the same book that she was replacing because it was damaged.

And so, you know, I don't know if maybe some of those 4500 books were simply because, you know, there is other reasons why books were removed.

I'm not sure that's an interesting number.

It's a lot different than the, you know, state number.

Speaking of Saint John's, we have a call from Jessica in St John's County.

Morning, Jessica.

Go ahead.

Good morning.

Thanks for taking my call.

I'm calling in regards to the earlier conversation your panel is having about school choice that I just had a comment that I wanted to add to the discussion.

We my husban and I bought a house purposely so that we could put our kids in the local public school and have them kind of grow up in a neighborhood where they were going to school with their peers.

But they also both of our sons happened to have special needs, and they're pretty intense.

And at the moment, we're actually having to drive one about 30 minutes away, one way to go to school and the other take him in the opposite direction.

Another 15 minutes and we are actually discussing having to move out of state because the lack of supports for special needs in the local school, that is our community school, which we would very much love to take our child to.

And we've been having to research, actually uprooting our famil and moving to a different place just because of the complete lack of of supports in the local schools for the unique special needs that our boys have.

And so that I just I feel very much feel the tension of those two dynamics.

And I wanted to share that.

And Jessica, are your children attending school still in St John's County?

It's just that the local schoo will not accommodate them.

Yes.

So one is going to a charter school that has some unique accommodations that that are working for him at the moment.

And then the othe is in an intensive SC classroom that's only available in specific schools that.

So we have to kind of drive him to that as well.

But I know, you know, in some of the states and school districts that we're looking at in other places, they have a lot more support that would enable our children to potentially be in the local community where we're living and raising them.

So.

Well, thanks, Jessica.

I mean, I think it would surprise some people that she's having the problem she's having in that particular county.

Megan, which is considered the very best in the state.

It is are the very best although there is a lot of talk among residents that it's it struggles to accommodate situations like this, that the it's great for kids that don't have before plans or have special needs.

But I have heard many, many different parents say similar things about its ability to reach students with needs outside of the typical box.

Mm hmm.

And just to add to that, because I've heard that same complaint.

I've also spoken t a few teachers about that issue.

And just with the growth of the district, I've heard from some teachers, they don't have the resources to support those students with special needs.

They would like to, but they just don't have trying to handle so many students at one time.

They just don't have what they need.

I'm sure it's difficult and the schools are already bursting at this point.

We have a call from Darrell in Saint Augustine.

Good morning, Darrell.

Go ahead.

Yeah, good morning.

Well, you know some people might dumb decisions for our election, so keep our kids dumb and we can contro everything we need to control.

Thanks, Darrell.

I mean, there are people that are concerned about you know, the choices impacting the quality of education.

And we have a message from Ed on Facebook.

He said moved from a particular grade level to a different grade level doesn't mean that the book is banned.

There's a difference in maturity and comprehension level between a seven year old and a 17 year old student.

That's a very good point.

I mean, a lot of these removals, as we're calling them, have been basically a re categorization of, you know, is this appropriate for this age group?

It might be appropriate for an older child.

Megan But as he points out, seven year olds have different standards and expectations.

That's true.

A lot of the books on this list were, you know, shuffled to different age groups.

A lot of them were also removed from the entire K-12 system.

But the state is being careful to use the phrase remove it.

Think in there.

They've come out to say, you know, no books have been banned, but I'm not sure about the semantic difference there between removing a book from access fo all students versus banning it.

Yeah.

And just very briefly, I do want to sort of touch on the the hurricane season, the ongoing Anthony hurricane season.

We got I guess, some good news for us, not necessarily great for our Central American neighbor with Tropical Depression Sarah.

Yeah, it's going to be definitely rougher for them with Sarah.

Right now I think all that we're expecting Tuesday into Wednesday just mainly rain for our area.

But I know that the urologists, they were looking at different models last week that were kind of showing it possibly coming here or to southern Florida.

All right.

Well, David Bauerlein, Anthon Austin and Maxwell, Megan Malco, thanks so much for being here.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Up next, we're going to be talking to a musician whose music has inspired everyone from Nelson Mandela to the Dalai Lama, Terrell Hogan Law and Wayne Hogan.

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Welcome back.

Well, she's a singer songwriter whose music is as much a call to action as it is a celebration of humanity.

Listeners of this program will have heard of Morley's music and heard it on this program before.

It's the centerpiece of this weekend's Ted X Jacksonville show, and she's here to give u a preview.

Good morning, Morley.

Good morning.

Good to see you again.

Nice To see you as well.

So you perform tomorrow with your keyboardist.

Is your husband, Chris Bruce, also joining you?

He is flying in from London to join us for the show after he's flying in from London to join us for the show afterwards.

And tell us a little bit about where he's been because he's had bee on a touring adventure himself.

Yes.

He's the producer, co-producer with Michelle Indigo, Cello of For Last Bunch of Albums.

And the last one was the I'm Nick Ward real book, and that won the Grammy.

And this one also just got nomin No More Water, The Gospel of James Baldwin.

And it's an amazing album.

And they're touring all over the world with it.

And I just love it so much.

It's it's all over.

You can hear it on every platform.

No More Water.

The Gospel of James Baldwin, Michelle Indigo Cello, and Chris.

And Chris is one of the producers and songwriters on that excited.

So he's going to come in and do kind of a tight turn for the head performance.

He's not going to join us for the performance at Ted, but he's going to come and join us for the performance at night at the Pabulum lab.

Okay, That's cool.

Okay, great.

So tell us just I mean, people who maybe haven't heard your music, it's kind of thi blend of soul and folk and jazz.

It's really a unique acoustic sound.

How do you, you know, find your inspiratio for the music that you create?

I really feel I've been thinking about a lot lately.

What inspiration is to be inspire is to be part of an ecosystem, to remember where of we're part of each other, we're part of we are of the earth.

We're not on Earth.

When I go into water, I'm not going into water of water in the water.

And that's part what I mean.

Be talking about the TED talk, but this ecosystem, our entire belonging is sort of the best place for inspiration.

That is that is a plac for ideas, That is a place for possibility.

And and we feel i when we're listening to a music.

We're listening to a song.

And like when your song comes on something you really love, all of a sudden you're like, Oh, my jam in the notes and the shoulders moving, The hips are swaying and there's this automatic place inside the body that's, relaxed and, you know, familiar and acquainted with a momen in time, no matter where it was, where you may be the first time you heard that song, whatever that good feeling, you know, all of a sudden you're in that place.

And that, to me, is evidence of our eco being part of this ecosystem of our into belonging.

And so that's where I ge my inspiration and togetherness.

And I think that the cycles of violence and these cycles of separation with each other come from us forgetting that we're part of an ecosystem, that we're actually of this earth, we're of each other, and so we other each other.

We make each other so far, like all these divisions, it's out o it's out of it's out of rhythm, it's out of melody, it's out of harmony.

It's we're out but we're in the inside the rhythm and inside the harmony with each other because we're remembering a natural place.

And that is to be in chorus together, in harmony.

Your music has reached so many people from and on, so many different, like it's been used in TV commercials, it's been used in documentaries.

It's inspired people, as I said, like the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela.

What is it that you think your appeal is on that level in so many different ways?

Maybe.

My love for other people you just mentioned, maybe my shared love of us as a human family and not centering ourselves as human beings on the planet like we are the center of our narrative.

Like we get freaked out about something not going right for us.

For me, I realized it's because I'm centering myself as a human on the earth.

What do we center the water?

What are we center the trees?

What do we center the soil and where we get all of our nourishment like we have to change the way where we centering ourselves in our in our even our persona thinking, in our relationships is something that so people you just mentioned are people that inspire me to think beyond myself.

Just briefly, you're going to be performing, as you said, two shows.

One is going to be USF on Saturday.

That's the TEDx Jacksonville show.

And then Saturday night at from 8:00 to 930 at Babbs Lab and tickets are on sale at the door.

And you are going to play us out.

I just want to say thank to our listeners for listening.

If you have feedback or suggestions, you can send either to First Coast Connect to WJCT Dot ORg Remind you to listen to What's Health got to do with i This weekend at four, when Dr. Joe Servin explores a new technology helping the paralyzed reclaim their independence.

And on Monday, we're going to be getting some expert advice about how to navigate the holidays with relatives.

On the other side of the political divide.

I mentioned earlier, you've been listening to First Coast Connect on WJCT News 89 nine.

Yeah, well, that's a great Segway because that's amazing work they're doing, you know, doing here.

All right.

Or at least going to take it away.

Come catch your breath with me.

Feel too much.

Feel nothing.

Come catch your breath with me.

Let's find some healing bone inside this great So much banking on our exhaustion, so much turning on a turning way, so much gliding on our division, but so much riding on our love power to daily fun.

Catch your breath with me me all held captive on mother will be set free Support for First Coast Connect is provided in part by Baptist Health and North Florida TPO.

Baptist Health is a prou supporter of First Coast Connect Baptist Health, committed to building a healthier community for all of us.

More info at 2024y O.U.

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