Just three weeks after posting a video on Twitter showing rows of empty bookshelves at a Florida Middle School, substitute teacher Brian Covey says he’s been fired.
Brian Covey, the substitute teacher at Mandarin Middle School, posted a video on Jan. 27 showing rows of empty bookshelves in the school’s library in an attempt to substantiate the narrative that Governor Ron DeSantis and his office are in the habit of broad-scale “book banning.” The video quickly went viral and now has over 13 million views; it made national headlines and was even mentioned on a late-night talk show.
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The video came after orders from the state for teachers and librarians to “err on the side of caution” in making decisions about the content they make available to students. The order offers further advisements as well.
“If you would not be comfortable reading the material in a public setting, then you should lean toward not making the material available in a public school library for children.”
When faced with stories of broad-book banning that the video promotes, DeSantis called it a “fake narrative.”
“That video, that was a fake narrative, that was not true,” the governor said. “What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to act like somehow we don’t want books.”
Many DeSantis critics have taken to Twitter, labeling the firing as another example of “fascism” under DeSantis.
🧵1/2 It seems the "anti-cancel culture" and "free speech" crowd in Florida have again "cancelled" someone and denied them the exercise of free speech –
Substitute Duval teacher behind viral video showing empty bookshelves in middle school library fired.
— Rainbow Youth Project USA (@RainbowYouthUSA) February 18, 2023
Whenever you hear @RonDeSantisFL utter the word "freedom" just substitute the word "fascism" and what he is saying will make much more sense.
Florida is repeating early 1930's Germany.— Daniel A Fee (@DanielAFee1) February 19, 2023
Even freshman progressive Congressman Maxwell Frost weighed in.
A substitute teacher was fired here in Florida because they posted a video of empty book shelves because so many books have been banned. That sound like liberty and freedom to you?
— Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) February 19, 2023
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However, it appears that DeSantis was correct. Duval county schools gave First Coast News a statement regarding Covey’s termination.
“In discussion between the district and ESS regarding this individual’s misrepresentation of the books available to students in the school’s library and the disruption this misrepresentation has caused, it was determined that he had violated social media and cell phone policies of his employer. Therefore, ESS determined these policy violations made it necessary to part ways with this individual.”
ESS is the organization that hires substitute teachers for the county.
So what was this misrepresentation? While Duval school county officials admitted that there was a reduction in available books at the time to screen them for approval, they made clear the shelves were never empty. DCPS Superintendent Diana Green said as much in a Thursday letter to district employees, explaining the situation.
“We did direct teachers to temporarily reduce their classroom library collections to titles that were previously approved while waiting for media specialists to curate a more expansive list of approved titles. However, at no time should a classroom have been without reading resources.”
Multiple Twitter users were sure to champion this point as well.
A viral hoax showing a supposedly cleaned-out library as a result of a new Florida law banning explicit material in schools has resulted in a teacher being fired. Brian Covey, who was a substitute teacher for Duval County Public Schools, was told his services was no longer needed
— KDH (@KellyHarrelson5) February 19, 2023
A Florida teacher who worked as a permanent substitute since October was fired for emptying bookshelves to push a narrative
…but Judd still spins it to be about @RonDeSantisFL https://t.co/vszjxIJ5mJ pic.twitter.com/bulMpgldSO
— …From Ground Level (@fromgroundlevel) February 18, 2023
Even if that many books were made unavailable, which Duval County denies, nothing in the Florida state orders requires all of a school’s books to be vetted at once or removed.
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