FDOE says school district staff must not allow student protests during the school day
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In a letter to Florida school district Superintendents, Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas wrote that although students retain constitutional rights to free expression, protests must not interrupt instructional time, and staff “must not encourage, organize, promote, or facilitate student participation in protest activity during the school day.”
Click here to read the letter.
In the February 3 letter, Kamoutsas wrote that school district leaders and administrators “carry a responsibility to safeguard instructional time, maintain campus safety, and ensure compliance with law, State Board of Education rules, and local school board policy.”
He clarified that although students “retain constitutional rights to free expression, including the ability to engage in peaceful protest,… Districts have a responsibility to ensure that any protest activity does not interrupt instructional time, school operations, and campus safety. Administrators and instructional staff must not encourage, organize, promote, or facilitate student participation in protest activity during the school day.”
Kamoutsas warned that any conduct that “diverts students from instruction, undermines classroom authority, or compromises student supervision” will result in disciplinary action, and he added, “Moreover, Rule 6A-10.081, Florida Administrative Code, requires educators to take reasonable precautions to distinguish between personal views and those of any educational institution or organization with which the individual is affiliated.”
Kamoutsas encouraged parents to “have conversations with your students about the importance of not allowing civic engagement to detract from time in the classroom,” and he wrote that he expects Superintendents to share the letter with district leadership, school administrators, teachers, and parents.”
Makes sense.
Welcome to the free state of totalitarian. Make sure you teach them how to salute.
As opposed to kneeling before the locally elected Comrades.
Better to keep them in the classroom then allow them to protest things that are untrue and get hurt for BS agendas.
They can protest all they want before and after school and like 1000 feet away from campus and not block streets…I salute to that!
Pretext meant to intimidate.
Kamoutsas encouraged parents to “have conversations with your students about the importance of not allowing civic engagement to detract from time in the classroom,”
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree. .Jefferson
Oh sure kids safety vs what Biden did during the Covid. Get the jab or you can’t go to school or work. Get the jab or you cant go out to a store. Wear a jock strap or a diaper on your face or you are not a real American. Pretty sure Joey wasn’t thinking of Jefferson then. And let’s not forget that tomorrow you flip the coin and spout off about Jefferson being a slave owner and a racist.
Covid was a health emergency…many Americans dying. Ignoring and downplaying it doesn’t change the ongoing challenges and continuing illness. Vaccines work.
“As of early 2026, the cumulative death toll in the U.S. exceeded 1.2 million, with approximately 200,000 deaths occurring annually in recent years. Only 29 states continue to report data regularly, representing about 70% of previous national totals.”
About Jefferson, rather than look for the perfect, examine the complexity of humanity and the context of their lives and deeds.
You are the one that doesn’t want to admit fault. There is not one president in the history of the United States that has not had some form of controversy within their terms.Just like your current President You, Jazzman, and tge other unicirns do not look at his complexity of humanity and hi deeds. You can not acknowledge this country is safer with closed borders, less drugs entering this country, and U.S. dollar improving by the day.
Speaking of protests; the crowd of protesters parading down University Avenue last week caused traffic disruptions and impeded people’s travel—I thought the State just enacted legislation to prohibit such activities.
If so, why did GPD participate by rerouting and stopping normal traffic flow?