Tallahassee Democrat Ignores Federal Lawsuit Related to Gender Policy, Covers Superman’s Bisexual Son
By Steve Stewart
TallahasseeReports.com
The Tallahassee Democrat, who has a full-time K-12 education reporter, has yet to inform their readers about a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a Tallahassee family related to a controversial Leon County School Board policy on gender.
However, the Gannett-owned paper found the time to inform their readers about the “Heroes of Diversity.”
Beyond the coverage of Superman’s son sexuality, the Tallahassee Democrat has scheduled a Facebook live event to dig deeper into the issue. The announcement states:
When DC Comics announced that Superman’s son was bisexual, the news was met with praise and criticism. To dive deeper into the topic, we assembled a panel of comic book fans to talk about what the changes in the industry mean. Join us for a live discussion at 1 p.m. Wednesday here on Facebook.
But what about gender issues in our local middle schools?
Tallahassee Reports has published two stories about how Deer Lake Middle School officials developed a gender transition plan for a struggling student without informing her parents. These same officials then told the parents that the had the right to keep them in the dark.
The parents have filed a federal lawsuit and have yet to be contacted by a Tallahassee Democrat reporter.
WCTV has recently covered the lawsuit.
The absence of coverage by Tallahassee’s Gannett-owned “paper of record” is alarming for a couple of reasons.
First, there is the bias issue.
You need only follow the twitter feed of the Democrat K-12 education beat writer to understand that her progressive bias might be part of the problem. However, in my view, the bigger problem is management.
You would think someone in a newsroom would say, “hey look, a federal lawsuit against the Leon County School Board, lets get someone on that.”
This did not happen and someone should take the time to explain why.
Second, you have to ask what else is the legacy media ignoring?
TR has recently written about the advocacy by school officials of a progressive cause at Montford Middle School. The advocacy was so blatant that Superintendent Rocky Hanna took action to curb the outside influence that seems to be determining policy at these schools.
E-mails clearly show the activism by district and school level officials to promote a cause at Montford. When questioned by teachers about the parent-student relationship, these teachers were told by school officials that middle school students have a right to privacy.
However, again, the Tallahassee Democrat has decided not to address this issue.
Interestingly, in both cases Superintendent Rocky went on the record supporting the parents at Deer Lake Middle School and he took action to with the Montford Middle School situation.
Coverage of these issues by the Tallahassee Democrat, and the likes of WFSU, would reveal there are common sense positions related to these divisive issues. This revelation would force our community to engage and recognize that the national divide on cultural issues does not have to define Tallahassee.
However, coverage requires an acknowledgement that what is happening is newsworthy. It also requires difficult questions for elected leaders. Without acknowledgement, there is tacit endorsement and no accountability.
On these issues that impact your middle school children, the Tallahassee Democrat has made the decision to remain silent.
For our part, this week Tallahassee Reports will attempt to get answers from the school board members about these important issues related to parental rights and the use of school classrooms to advocate for divisive causes.