JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA — Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. called out a Leftist school board member for pedaling misinformation on Monday.
Over the weekend, several Leftist politicians and activists latched onto misspellings from a list of approved books that a First Coast News article attributed to the Florida Department of Education (FDOE). The critics mocked the Department for purportedly misspelling ninth and twelfth, as “nineth” and “twelth.”
On Monday evening, Diaz took to social media in order to correct the record by calling out Sarah Leonardi, a Leftist school board member in Broward County, for sharing the list.
This document was not written by the Department, so you might want to delete this.
— Manny Diaz Jr. (@SenMannyDiazJr) February 27, 2023
If you really want to see the books in our standards, they haven't changed for 3 years and are available here: https://t.co/KMBG269l8K
As a school board member you should know better. https://t.co/sMWMY65jDD
“You’d think a school board member would know a little bit more about the state’s recommended reading list,” quipped Jeremy Redfern, the governor’s deputy press secretary, in a tweet responding to Diaz.
The Florida Standard requested comment from Andrew Badillo, the reporter who attributed the list to the state, on Tuesday morning but have not yet received a response.
Badillo responded to FDOE Communications Director Alex Lanfranconi in an email posted on Twitter.
.@andrewbadillo99 refuses to correct the record because he “did not say the list came from the Florida Department of Education.”
— Alex Lanfranconi (@AlexLanfran) February 28, 2023
However, he clearly did and certainly implied it.
Why be resistant to your article being accurate? https://t.co/2CtAewc0Y7 pic.twitter.com/3ZSHcrqNCu
MORE FAKE NEWS
First Coast News has previously inaccurately reported information from FDOE, falsely stating that “teachers in the state of Florida could be committing a third-degree felony by having books and literature about certain topics in their classroom.”
In response to the inaccurate reporting, Governor DeSantis’ Press Secretary Bryan Griffin tweeted a lengthy statement on February 14 that blasted First Coast News and noted that Jacksonville TV station never contacted the state for clarification or comment.
“There has been no state instruction to empty libraries or cover up classroom books,” Griffin wrote. “[First Coast News] continue to, unashamedly, push a fake narrative about book bans and felony penalties.”
