(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A Florida bill prohibited the flying of any political flags at government entities, including public schools, and prevented those entities from taking a side on different political issues.
Rep. David Borrero, R-Fla., introduced a bill, HB 901, that would prohibit a “government entity” from flying a political flag and require such entities to remain neutral when it comes to the representation of political viewpoints.
A government entity is defined as a “local government, or another unit of local government” which includes public schools, public colleges and public universities, according to the bill’s text.
The government entity specifically may not “erect or display a flag that represents a political viewpoint, including, but not limited to, a politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender or political ideology viewpoint,” the bill said.
In addition to that, the governmental entity must also “remain neutral” when representing political viewpoints by “displaying or erecting a flag.”
With Republicans holding a majority in both Florida’s House and Senate, the bill passed a rule of law subcommittee hearing with a 9-4 vote along party lines, according to Blaze Media.
Borrero said during the hearing that students are being “subliminally indoctrinated” by the flags flying at their schools, colleges and universities.
“The premise for this bill is very simple, and one that we should all agree with on this committee — our taxpayer dollars should not be subsidizing political speech in government buildings and classrooms. It’s time we stopped letting local governments and public school teachers from using classrooms in government buildings as their indoctrination pulpit,” he said.
In addition to that, the bill would prohibit teachers or government employees from wearing or displaying partisan political merchandise in their workplace.
“Public classrooms should not be the place where our kids go to be radicalized and evangelized into accepting these partisan, radical ideologies. It’s wholly inappropriate to be putting those types of flags in front of public school students and government buildings,” he added.
