>>This week on NewsNight, a day after Governor DeSantis removed Monique Worrell from her post, new state attorney Andrew Bain laid out his first 100 days game plan, which includes eliminating diversion programs.

What does that mean for first time offenders of petty crimes?

Brevard County commissioners cut funding for the cultural grant program just weeks ahead of the Space Coast Pride Parade, leaving about 25 arts and cultural organizations looking for new funding.

And Back to School brings new uncertainties about what can be taught in classrooms as new changes are implemented.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello.

I'm Brendan Byrne, filling in for Steve Mort tonight.

Welcome to NewsNight, where we take an in-depth look at the top stories and issues in central Florida and how they affect you.

We want to start tonight by talking about the changes in the justice system.

For months, former state attorney Monique Worrell faced backlash from Governor DeSantis after a 19 year old man was accused of killing three people back in March, including an Orlando reporter.

The suspect had a lengthy criminal record, including eight felonies and 11 misdemeanors.

Despite that, he wasn't behind bars.

Then in August, she met with criticism again after a gunman shot two Orlando police officers.

That suspect was on probation at the time of the shooting and had an extensive criminal record.

The governor repeatedly stated that Worrell had a pattern of avoiding minimum mandatory sentences and took it upon himself to put her on suspension and appoint a new state attorney, Andrew Bain.

During a press conference, Bain addressed accountability in the justice system.

>>Does that accomplish anything to prosecute a case with no intent to stop crimes?

I will make this office accountable to the community we serve and to assure crimes criminals who poison society cause mayhem and murder are held accountable under the law.

We will be good partners to law enforcement, create partnerships that can change the tide and provide a safer and more prosperous circuit and community.

We will work to find solutions to the underlying issues that lead people to the criminal justice system.

No matter whether the issue be mental health, homelessness, food insecurity, literacy, or lack of mentorship.

My fellow prosecutors, especially those who live in the community in our ninth Circuit, but now work for other state attorneys.

We have moved because you don't feel like there's a home for you.

Here in your own community.

I want to welcome you back to the state attorney's office with open arms.

>>The newly appointed state attorney laid out his first 100 day plan addressing how the state will prosecute crimes, including revising previous cases, eliminating diversion programs for low level crimes of first time offenders, according to Orange County defense attorney Jacob Stuart, court cases are already facing delays because two criminal divisions are without a judge.

And the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court has five vacancies.

He also goes on to say that all the new changes state Attorney Bain is hoping to implement will create a backlog.

>>These diversion programs aren't used for serious cases.

So, you know, armed robbery, sex So when you have a state attorney like Bain, Mr. Bain saying that we're focusing on these, you know, serious cases and all that we all can agree, we need to focus on serious crimes and victims need to have their day in court.

No one disagrees with that.

But we're talking about victimless crimes that primarily affect minorities or people with mental health issues or maybe in lower economic stratospheres.

We really need to protect them.

Right.

And these systems work.

And so eliminating this not only hurts the disenfranchized to begin with, but also creates more backlog in our already strained judicial branch.

Usually in general, the sooner you get a plea deal, the less likely the consequence is going to be the lesser the consequence going to be.

I think my problem with the policy is they're acknowledging that every case is different and that they're forcing people, even if plea deals have already been extended, to make that decision on an artificial guideline that has no real public policy reason why you're doing it.

Remember the voters of Orange and Osceola County did not vote for this change in policy.

>>Well, let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

Joining us in the studio this week, Alexa Lorenzo from Channel 9 and Erik Sandoval from WKMG.

Thank you both so much for being here today.

Good to see you as well.

Erik, let's start with you.

According to the governor, one of the many reasons he suspended Worrell was due to the high rate of dropped cases and also not prosecuting cases of the evidence was not provable beyond reasonable doubt.

Speaking of evidence, is there any evidence that that was the case?

>>Well, I think they're looking for that now.

You know, we have with the governor claims that, you know, she wasn't doing her job effectively and that she was letting these cases basically leak through.

She claims that she has a 1% dismissal rate, meaning 1% of the cases she's presenting are actually dismissed because there wasn't enough evidence.

So right now, Andrew Bain and his team are basically going to go through all of the cases that they declined to prosecute where they didn't find enough evidence to go forward with a case.

And they're going to see if there was any evidence to that point.

>>Do you know how long that process will take?

I mean, I've got to imagine that's a lot of cases.

>>That is a lot of cases.

I don't know.

I don't know.

>>Alexa, under the previous state attorney Worrell there were five diversion programs, Bain's put a temporary suspension on these programs.

The goals were to help defendants avoid jail time or get rid of criminal records.

How will this have an effect in the central Florida community?

>>Yeah, a lot of people within the central Florida community, especially, are black and Hispanic populations have been speaking out against this.

They say Worrell was elected with more than 66% of the vote, and a lot of those voters were black and Hispanic who voted for these policies.

And again, to be clear, these diversion programs were for low level.

As that interview mentioned, victimless crimes, underage drinking, resisting arrest without violence, suspended license.

So these diversion programs were meant to give people a second chance.

They don't want to have this criminal record because then there's a trickle down effect.

They can't find housing.

They can't find a job.

So we're now hearing from a lot of these community leaders saying, what are we going to do now with these people who understand what they did wrong, want to correct it, but now can't because these diversion programs have been wiped away.

>>So issues in the short term and definitely issues in the long term as as these kind of these effects tease themselves out.

>>And as we watch it play out.

>>Erik, ending diversion programs is going to help or is going to hinder one particular community that that's the youth committing petty crimes and first time offenders, right.

What are the kind of perceived impacts that that may have?

>>Well, you know, just to put it in perspective, I think we all know somebody when we were younger, we all knew somebody who made wrong choices.

They were nabbed by the cops.

Maybe they they were making penance for for that wrong choice.

You know, these programs, as Alexa just said, they were meant to give you a second chance to to go through the process, the court process, and have that charge disappear.

It targeted lower income communities.

And, you know, with COVID, there was such a backlog of cases, they had to create these calendars for cases to move forward.

And with these with these diversion programs going away, these these offenders, these defendants are going to now have to face these court hearings, and it's going to create an even bigger backlog of cases that is going to take more time.

And, of course, you know, everybody has the right to a fair and speedy trial.

A lot of these cases could end up getting thrown out.

>>And that's what we heard from Jacob Stuart, the defense attorney there, that there is this backlog.

So so lots of effects there.

Alexa, another thing that left along with State Attorney Worrell is the catch and release policy.

Under this policy, immigrants could be released into the community while waiting for a hearing in immigration court.

Now they'll have to be held in detention.

Talk about the effects to this particular community here in Central Florida.

>>These are family members that are providing for their children that now can't be released during this process.

So we've been hearing a lot from, again, Hispanic organization leaders.

We've heard from Alianza Center for Progress.

We've heard from the Hispanic Federation Equal ground.

And they're saying that this was the state looking to retaliate it against their political rivals.

And now they kind of need to step up and find attorneys for some of these people that are now not going to be able to be released as this immigration process plays out.

So they know that there's more work to be done given what was washed away.

>>And this comes as a new immigration law goes into effect on July 1st.

So even more challenges for the central Florida migrant community.

Erik, Post-Conviction relief, otherwise known as PCR.

Can you explain what that is?

I know youve done some reporting?

>>Absolutely.

So, you know, we talked about the diversion programs where, you know, if you, you know, follow a set of rules in the court system, your charge goes away.

Post-Conviction relief is basically when a defendant does go through the court system, maybe they're found guilty.

Maybe they're sentenced to six months in jail.

Post-Conviction relief is basically when they file a motion saying, my attorney didn't represent me right.

Or I think that six month sentence is too long.

It's basically their appeal.

And, you know, during COVID, those hearings for these appeals or post-conviction reliefs were set on hold.

And they didn't start up until well after the trials started going again.

There was talk about backlog.

There was a backlog of diversion.

There's a huge backlog of post-conviction relief hearings.

So now if you take these away, there's going to be even more hearings coming down the pike and the even bigger backlog.

So it's really going to create a problem if this goes through as Andrew Bain wants.

>>So there's there's this backlog.

We're seeing all these effects to the community.

But I think the one thing we can't forget is that this was a democratically elected official.

66% of the vote who was removed from office.

What are what are people saying about that aspect of this story, Alexa?

>>A lot of these programs were in place before Worrell took office.

They preceded her.

So while some of them are new with her at the helm, some of them have been happening in Orange and Osceola County for years.

So you have voters saying not only did we elect her, we've had these programs for a fair amount of time now.

And then you have other people saying, this is what we needed.

Look at what has happened with her at the helm.

So you're hearing the abuse of power and you're hearing the governor did the right thing.

It's the two sides that we see with everything.

>>And I think, you know, to further that point, I think there is a fear about the abuse of power, because, you know, the governor did remove the state attorney in Hillsborough County, you know, did reassign Aramis Ayala, Worrell's predecessor when the death penalty cases came up, you know, took those cases away, gave them to different state attorneys.

So, you know, Worrell has said that she is going for reelection, and if she's reelected, it's going to be a different story.

Both of those attorneys, Democrats were removed by Republican governors.

To view the full press conference with new state attorney Bain and the entire interview with state Attorney Stuart.

It's all on our website.

Visit wucf.org/newsnight.

Next, with students back to school, there's much uncertainty about what teachers are and aren't allowed to teach in their classrooms.

The ban on instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation to all grade levels and controversial updates to curriculum in regards to black history, just to name a couple.

Right before the school year began, the school board and superintended were informed that AP psychology was effectively banned due to content about sexual orientation and gender, and that ultimately the course violated state law.

Then a few days into the school year, that decision was reversed, allowing students to take the course after all.

According to UCF College of Community Innovation and Education, assistant professor Dr. Larry Walker, educators are having a hard time navigating all the changes in hopes of not breaking the law.

>>If you move out of the edges like coloring in a line and you color outside the line, then you're likely to face some serious challenges.

So they're constricted about what they want to teach you.

Like you said, there may be some things, some aspects they may or may not want to teach, but you are really constricted about what is in the curriculum and what's mandated.

And you pretty much, like I say, have a color within the lines.

You're downplaying certain issues.

Some of the issues we're talking about, you're not going to be penalized for that.

But if you try to add some context to some of the topics we're talking about, it's clear from what we've already seen that you are likely to face some serious challenges.

And we could even, for example, we can talk about the book bans we've seen in the state over some very basic concepts.

So the idea that you are trying to add or provide more context, you could find yourself in a lot of trouble.

And this is and this is troubling in a democracy.

>>We reached out to a couple of districts in our coverage area, and according to Orange County schools, while Florida's commissioner of Education provided assurances that AP psychology could be taught within the state's new laws, educational rules, that simply came too late.

So they pivoted to Cambridge Psychology or IB Psychology and Brevard Public Schools says the district is still moving forward with offering students an alternative to AP psychology.

Alexa This has got to be confusing for teachers, is it not?

>>Teachers and students.

>>I was gonna say, I'm confused.

>>Very good.

>>And reporters covering that for students, you talk to them.

They want to be psychologists.

A lot of them were looking forward to this course for a student who with in just a few days, it was taken away.

It was given back.

It was never mind.

It's too late then for teachers.

They studied this course.

They plan this course.

They've been teaching it for years or they prepared to teach it for the first time.

And it's this back and forth that's so difficult to follow.

And it's that effectively banned that word effectively meant so much.

And at this point, a lot of teachers, whether they're teaching it or whether they're not, they're toeing the line here.

It's easier for these districts and these superintendents when we've done interviews with them to say we'll revisit it next year.

We're a week, two weeks in.

At this point, we don't want to deal with the repercussions we're going to offer them those IB alternatives, those Cambridge alternatives, and hopefully still provide them with a strong psychology education.

But staying away from some of those slap on the wrist or revocation of teacher licenses.

>>The flip side of that, and if I could just dovetail off that is for the students, because, you know, when they take these AP classes, they're effectively starting college with already some college credits under their belt maybe sophomore-- >>...GPA.

>>Exactly.

>>And not have to pay for that course later on.

>>And so it's really affecting the students to the teachers are understandably concerned, but the students are too.

And their parents.

>>Yeah, their parents are paying the college tuition fees.

>>Yes.

Right.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Erik, the Florida Board of Education also approved guidelines for this upcoming school year.

What do we know about those?

>>There's 18 of them, Brendan.

Okay.

>>How much time do we have?

>>Seriously, I had to write some of the highlights down so I didn't miss them.

You know, one that we've been talking about bans the use of pronouns that are not specific to the person's gender at birth.

Schools, schools have to have gender specific restrooms.

If a child wants a nickname or to use a name other than their given birth name, the parents need to sign off on it on a form that actually went home at the beginning of the school year.

You know, on social media, I saw a whole bunch of parents posting this form saying, What is this?

This is the the result of the new law that went into effect.

They also approved that new controversial curriculum about African-American education.

That is basically it's controversial, you know, an aspect of it that made headlines was basically saying that slaves learned valuable skills as a result of their enslavement, which angered so many people, rightfully so.

But that's just the highlights of what they approved.

>>Alexa, there's changes to the curriculum at last minute.

There's all of these new rules that Erik just outlined.

How are Central Florida schools reacting to this?

I've got to imagine this is a difficult time if you are an administrator or superintendent.

>>And it goes back to what I was just mentioning.

They're doing everything they can right now to avoid getting in trouble.

We did a story this week out of Seminole County that Seminole County students and their parents now may be asked to sign off on school sponsored activities that can be anything from a pep rally to a football game.

You have parents saying it's a football game, right?

It's a pep rally.

We have other things to worry to worry about and bigger issues.

So at this point, there's just so much going home and saying, can you sign this?

Take a look at this, because it's covering themselves and they're protecting themselves from a slap on the wrist, a revocation of their license, a lawsuit.

It's very hard to keep up.

And it seems as we continue to go along this school year, new things will come up.

It started with the signing off on the pronouns or their nicknames.

Now, these school sponsored events next month you and I will be back in here talking about another paper that went home.

>>Yeah, there's protecting yourself.

There's preventing lawsuits.

It seems like both teachers and administrators are walking on eggshells when it comes to these things.

Our reporters at WMFE have been talking to educators that have heard that you all have talked to educators that have said that.

Erik, I've got to imagine this does not help the teacher shortage here in Florida, does it?

>>We asked that as soon as all of these new rules came down the pike, because Florida has had a problem recruiting teachers for several years now, and these new rules that are not only rules, but they're punitive in nature against the teacher and the school district.

You know, you mess up one of the pronoun or the nickname is a great example.

I start calling you B instead of Brendan.

You know, I could face as a teacher punitive repercussions for that.

Would you want to come work in a state that had those punitive repercussions, or would you rather go to a state that would probably pay you more or doesn't have these these, you know, punishments handed down to teachers?

You know, the Florida Teachers Association says it's one of the worst shortages right now.

Start of the school year, six - 8,000 teacher openings, 6,000 support staff openings.

So there's help wanted signs all over central Florida.

>>It doesn't provide consistency for the students.

I've talked to several of them that say, yeah, my science teacher is so-and-so, but that's just a sub right now and -- >>Holding the place.

Exactly.

So when will they get someone in the classroom who has a dedication to that course instead of just here for now?

>>Right.

I was going to ask, I think I know the answer to this question, but how is this affecting the quality of education in Central Florida?

>>It's a great question.

I think it depends on who you ask.

If you ask the governor and he's going to give you, you know, one point of view, you ask the parents, they the jury may be out.

>>Yeah.

And I did a story in this back to school session talking about the turnover in superintendents that they're saying we have so many new superintendents all here in central Florida are new since 2020.

Across the state of Florida, I believe it's 61 of 67 Superintendents are new in the past four years.

So it's not just teachers new to the classroom, it's leaders at the top.

>>So something something we'll be seeing long term effects for for quite a few school years.

We'll be we'll be sure to join the conversation.

And you can find WUCF on all of your favorite social media platforms.

And finally, Brevard County commissioners unanimously voted to cut all arts and cultural grants.

25 organizations that were counting on the money, like the Brevard Symphony Orchestra who were set to receive $25,000, will be forced to make cuts.

Also, the Space Coast Arts Festival, which is a free community event, lost $15,000 from the county and is scrambling to make ends meet for the annual event in October.

During the commission meeting, Rita Pritchett, who represents District one, said reallocating about $530,000 in revenue from the county's 5% tourism development tax towards lifeguards is a better use of taxpayer dollars.

During the meeting, it was also discussed moving another $900,000 in tourism and cultural fund money that will remain after the current budget year to the lifeguard program.

>>I've been talking to the county attorney a little bit.

At the end of this year there's going to be $1.4 million in this account.

And what we can and what we can do is move this over to the marketing dollars.

We're allowed to do that.

>>I move to deny that in 2023, 2024, Cultural Support Grant program recommendations and directs staff to redirect the funds into marketing budget.

All in favor, say Aye.

>>Aye.

>>Oppoposed?

>>Well, Space Coast Pride was set to receive for the first time $15,000 and was taken back by the commissioners unanimous vote, according to a study done by FIT, Arts on the Space Coast attracts more than $122 million to the county.

The grant program was previously approved by commissioners a few years back to get heads in beds, which means more people visiting and booking hotels, vacation rentals, thus creating more tax revenue.

Space Coast Pride President Justin Cercone says pride will still go on in September.

>>Well, we were selected as one of the possible x recipients of the tourism grant and we wanted to go and attend.

We had heard that there were some talks about the funding being diverted and also about us not receiving it.

So we wanted to just show representation and and be a part of the community as we always try to be.

Unfortunately, they decided that they were going to divert the funding for the tourism grant for all recipients, not just Space Coast pride to marketing and use it for lifeguards.

>>Well, Alexa, back in 2020, Brevard County Commissioners, with a 3 to 2 vote, approved 40 arts and cultural grants due to the return on investment for attracting tourism.

What's changed since then?

>>They're looking at the numbers and they're saying there are wants and there are needs and there's just not enough money in the pot for everyone who wants something or needs something to get the money.

They voted 3 to 2 for the allocation of that money for Brevard Cultural Alliance.

And they said, no, it wasn't.

Let's pull back some money.

Let's reshuffle.

It was a flat out no.

And you had one commissioner who voted against it saying that he reviewed some of the recent numbers from either a seminar or a show that happened at the BCA and that everyone that attended was a local.

So he said, at this point we need to bring tourism into Brevard County and Beach safety will do that.

Money to the BCA won't.

So that was one of the discussions that was held during that meeting and they're just trying to get people safe on the beaches and saying that lifeguard is lifeguards are a need and that the money to BCA is a want.

>>But Erik, just this week, the most recent commission meeting, they were in favor of renewing the Brevard Cultural Alliance contract.

But then commissioners voted 3 to 2 to reject the renewal.

How is the arts community going to feel that hit from this?

>>Well, I just go back to what we were talking about in the last segment with education.

You know, arts is just being slashed in education.

So, you know, many people turn to the community for that outlet and for that opportunity.

And now it's going to be slashed yet again in that community.

You know, these are major events that that are going to face these cuts.

This is the Brevard renaissance fair, the Space Coast State Fair, Thunder on Cocoa Beach, which is a big powerboat race that's right off of the coast there.

And, you know, if you saw that meeting, we just saw the commissioners at the at the podium on the other side.

There was a packed room and they were getting up and speaking very passionately about why the arts needed to be saved.

I think that sort of speaks to the impact that cutting these dollars is going to have.

And I think seeing the impact is going to take several weeks, several months.

But I think Brevard County will definitely feel that.

>>Alexa, as as Erik mentioned, there's lots of people that are supporters of the arts.

And this isn't just happening in Brevard County, right?

What are we seeing statewide when it comes to arts funding?

>>Less and less people getting the amount of funding that they're used to.

The Orlando Shakes, for example, they received 150,000 for last fiscal year.

Now that's down to about 105,000.

So that's a significant loss of funding that they had already planned out.

They said, okay, we got 150 last year, probably get the same this year.

This we're going to do that.

Now they have to go back to the table and say, what are we cutting?

What do we need?

So we're seeing across the board, not just in central Florida, it's Florida as a whole that these organizations are receiving less money, but we're also seeing some organizations getting funding.

For the first time.

We saw Emotions Dance, which is out of Maitland.

They are first time recipients.

So some people are saying, hey, we got a little piece of the pie, but other people are saying we've got significant funding taken away from us.

>>You know, the argument is that this doesn't bring people to the area and that they need to invest more in in lifeguards to bring tourism there.

Arts does have an impact on tourism does it not?

>>Absolutely.

>>So I mean how do you square that that argument that this doesn't you know.

>>Well unless they're going to take out a big billboard on on the beach line saying “Now with more lifeguards.

” Yeah.

I mean how do you parse that with more tourism unless that's part of their advertising where we have more lifeguards, it's now safer to come here.

Yeah, it just doesn't make sense to me.

>>And at the same time, you want to make the people who live in your state happy.

There are people who love the arts, who love going to the theater, who love watching the show.

If you take that away from a community, who's to say they're not going to move away might be a difficult move, but some people have so much passion and pride in the arts that they could do that.

>>Absolutely.

>>I did not know about the powerboat race and I'm bummed that I might not be able to see this year.

>>Oh it's good.

Oh, it's really good.

>>Well, that's all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Alexa Lorenzo from WFTV and Erik Sandoval from WKMG.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

From all of us here at NewsNight, take care.