Florida teacher may lose license over anti-confederacy mask

Amy Donofrio was one of those teachers who made a difference in her students lives. I just love them. For nine years, she taught a predominantly Black student population at a high school in Jacksonville, FL, named after the Confederate general Robert E Lee, a constant reminder of the city's oppressed past. So she was a warrior for us. She still is. Donofrio said she worked to create a safe space for her students to talk about their experiences. For her to be able to make teenagers feel comfortable enough to come to her classroom and express the trauma that they have gone through voluntarily, that's, that's a gift. In 2015, she began running a program called Evac, helping mostly blackmail students deal with their experiences with violence, racism and the justice system. They traveled to the White House to meet with congressional leaders, gave presentations at Harvard, and they also met with then President Barack Obama when he visited Jacksonville. Honestly, the most beautiful thing I have ever been a part of. But in 2020, as there was a racial reckoning in the country, Donofrio's school was changing, too. As she'd done in years past, Donofrio stood with her students who declared their Black Lives Matter, and she also supported changing the name of the once segregated school to one that better reflected the current student population. In one community meeting, she wore a face mask with a message quote. Robert E Lee was a gang member. I'm not a gang member, was a slogan used in the evac movement, according to court documents. We turned human compassion into something that's controversial. But in the fall of 2020, her principal asked her to stop displaying ABLM flag outside her classroom, saying the flag violated a school policy. The flag had not been a problem before then. There was no position opposite to this. For five months, Donofrio didn't take the flag down, according to court documents, because she believed it didn't violate any school policy. So the principal did. The following day, Donna Frio was reassigned outside the school, and Floridas then commissioner of education said this. It was an entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter. We made sure she was terminated. At the time, Donofrio was not fired, but a month later, she said she was out of a job. In response, her students collected nearly 18,000 signatures on a public petition to bring her back. I wasn't removed for anything having to do with my teaching. State education officials accused Donofrio of bringing her personal views into the classroom. An administrative judge disagreed, but she said Donofrio did violate school policy, which required teachers to remain neutral on politically charged issues when she wore the Robert E Lee mask. The judge recommended she receive a written reprimand, but a state education Commission will have the final say and could pull Donofrio's teaching license for good. The case against her has unfolded against a backdrop of Florida policing teachers amid the state's, quote, anti woke law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. We do not want to be caught in these culture wars. My students matter. Teachers who care about students matter. Laura. We reached out to Florida education officials to get a sense of where they stand ahead of tomorrow's meeting, whether they would like the Commission to sign off on the administrative judges recommendation of a written reprimand or whether they want Donofrio's teaching license pulled for good. We have not heard back from them.