Perry expresses concern about GHS teacher who posted intent to discriminate against maskless students

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

State Senator Keith Perry sent a letter to the Alachua County School Board today, expressing his concern over a social media post by Joe Waddell, a Gainesville High School teacher. In the Facebook post, Waddell wrote, “Maskless students will sit in the back of the class as far away from me and the masked students as possible. Extra credit for wearing a masking too…”

Perry wrote, “It is evident that this educator is insistent on discriminating and harassing students based on their medical or physical disabilities, and for this reason I am calling for appropriate disciplinary action. Mr. Waddell is signaling his intention to engage in ‘COVID-19 harassment,’ as defined in Emergency Rule 6AER21-02. I find it appalling that any educator would advocate for harassing their students and truly hope that you will take action against such behavior.”

Perry also cites Emergency Rule 64DER21-12, which states that “students whose parents or legal guardians have opted them out of a mask requirement should not be harassed or discriminated against, including but not limited to:

  • Relegation to certain physical locations;
  • Isolation during school activities;
  • Exclusion from any school-sponsored events or activities.”

  • Well do something about it! The school district, the city and the county is infected with a disease and it’s spreading faster than Covid and affecting more lives. Not in a good way.

    DeSantis should place another board member now. That would stop the $oci@li$t’ takeover of the local school district and enable the placing of competent leadership and put the brakes on the nepotism that is running rampant within the district.

    Keep on believing the lies they tell you.

    • You hit the nail right on the head… Thank you for saying what needs to be said.

  • And this guy teaches science???? What was his degree in, witchcraft? Perhaps he studied under Professor Torquemada.

    • He was measuring Co2 in exhaled air, not inhaled room air. I’m guessing that was an N-95 mask. That link is not addressing Masks Don’t Work.

  • That guy needs to be removed from that school immediately. Go look at his FB page, ridiculous! He’s a radical Marxist that has no business having this level of influence on young minds!

  • Doctors should be treating sick patients instead of filling out hundreds of forms for a really stupid reason.

  • Would be very interesting if a maskless student who has an accomodation in place due to something like ADHD or something else bc of a medical condition and they must be seated at the front of the classroom in order for them to succeed. Now they’d have a discrimination complaint for violating ADA!!

    What is wrong with the people in positions of power in Gainesville? The School Board must be having to make decisions with increased carboxyhemoglobin levels from inhaling carbon dioxide trapped in the masks. The Gainesville City Commissioners taking great pride in wasting taxpayer dollars to sue Governor DeSantis and refusing to listen to their own city attorney, just like they refused to accept study reports on issues that disagreed with their “desired” outcome. One of their fellow commissioners, an attorney, expressed great reservations about their desired complaint bc it was of political issues instead of legal issues, wording that simply hoisted their concerns to highly politicized mud slinging affair, and very little legal or cohesive reasoning that might actually result in consideration of their desired outcome by the court. Their own city attorney, the person who is to represent the city, unless facing action against the city attorney’s as part of the same legal action, advised against the lawsuit and told them that the argument needed to be written based on legal reasoning, not on political stances that would most likely result in summary judgement early on and be an expensive slap in the face to the city and, more importantly, the taxpayers who are footing the bill. The GCC turns around and adds further insult to injury and directs the city attorney to contact different law firms who might be interested in representing the city and have them appear at a GCC meeting with a presentation of how they’d work the case, would they be willing to draft the complaint per their instructions, and proposed budget. Basically, the meeting would be an interview. Other firms were upset at being excluded and not allow to present or even offer a proposal!! So many legal issues there: no request for proposal for the job, no pre-screening (firms could be handpicked by the city attorney without any clear criterion), no cap on legal.fees, no criterion for the complaint, etc. Furthermore, absent any type of possible conflict for the city attorney or her office, the actions could be deemed illegal as the city charter clearly grants the city attorney the responsibility of representing the city (disagreeing with the GCC, I’m surprised they haven’t fired or requested the resignation of the city attorney already!). Add in the fact that city has not been harmed by the law and may lack standing as an injured party, this could become even more expensive if a judge decides the city has filed a frivolous lawsuit and could be made to pay the legal fees for the governor and the state! I certainly hope that the State AG looks into that possibility soon and is ready to seek immediate dismissal with prejudice and request legal fees from the GCC so that it will send a clear message that frivolous that are filed based upon political mud slinging, instead of exceptional legal reasoning, will be met with swift and harsh counteraction and that they will seek legal remedies to the frivolity including dismissal with predhudice (they can’t refile the case in the future, unless the circumstances change such as being harmed by the law), ordering payment of the legal fees to quash the complaint, bashing the frivolity due to political rhetoric in the appropriate arena for these things: the media, and any other remedies for which they may be eligible under the law. These elected people who crave media attention by using the court system for political attacks instead of it’s proper use for righting wrongs by using proper legal reasoning should face charges of contempt of court for wasting the time of the court system, the judges, and the taxpayer money recklessly if they engage in this type of lunacy and abuse repeatedly. Those government officials who vote against said action bc of concerns over the proposed complaint(s), such as GCC Commissioner Saco, would be exempt from action if they tried to stop moving forward as evidenced by their vote (regardless of their reason to vote against)! The courts are already backed up enough and the message needs to be sent that the courts are not to be misused for sending political messages!!

  • Hmmm. Things are not looking good on the planet with
    Mandated mask wearing and Covid “papers pleez”!
    Freedom & Liberty are the good fight. The axis of evil
    Will be defeated. Is this going to be the impetus for
    Another civil war? What are you going to do when
    They finally come for you? What’s the culpepper motto?
    God bless the USA and the US constitution…the land of the free, home of the brave.

  • The teacher who posted that should be fired. He’s
    The poster boy for ACPS? What a horrible person.
    Desantis needs to withhold the whole state portion
    Of ACPS budget until this gets resolved. Let the parents
    Who want their kids to wear masks teach them at home.

    • IDGAF? He says…ha! Fired!!!!! And take away his teaching certification…we don’t need teachers like this teaching our children!!!

  • This guy is a straight up bully and should be treated as such. Its shameful that any teacher would treat their student like this and think its ok. He should be fired, but we all know the Marxist school board wants more of these foot soldiers in the classroom.

    • It sounds very bad…taking it out on the children!
      He should not be able to teach anymore. He’s
      Busted and needs to be charged and reprimanded.
      It’s in print and he can’t deny it now. Apologies and
      Saying your sorry ain’t gonna cut it. And, IDGAF if
      You lose your job Mr. Waddell…tell it to the judge!
      You violated these children’s religious & constitutional
      Rights…”no dark sarcasm in the class room…hey,
      Teacher! Leave them kids alone”!

  • I believe the teacher has every right to socially distance himself/herself during the crisis. This can be done without punishing those without masks. However, students should have the choice to also socially distance themselves from others – yes, impossible on a school bus. How the system tries to handle it will be interesting, Believing that social distancing is the most effective thing I can do matters. I haven’t put any faith in masks – but I did get vaccinated and encourage others to do so, (Note, encourage, not force.)

    • The only crisis we have is the communism that’s exploding across America! None of this s&$t is based on science, this is about CONTROL! They’ve weaponized the common cold for their never ending pandemic…Wake up!

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