Manatee school board, candidates debate politics, social movements in schools

Sadie Barbour, a junior at Braden River High School and the president-elect of next year’s Student Government Association, is passionate about standing up for what she believes. This includes being able to talk with her teachers about social movements. 

“Countries can't thrive unless people have disagreements and are able to talk about them and come together,” Barbour said. “School is a place of learning, and you should be able to learn about different things.”

On March 31, The School District of Manatee County discussed potential changes in school board policies, which might include cracking down on showing support for social movements and politics. 

The potential policy sparked a conversation which questioned what is considered political. Donald Trump lanyards, rainbow stickers (which support the LGBTQ+ community), and Black Lives Matter were all mentioned.

Jack Lowrance, a senior at Lakewood Ranch High School, is a member of the Gay Straight Alliance at his school. He said it is “insane they consider supporting students political.” 

“This shows that certain board members don’t want LGBTQ students to feel safe in school, amidst an already worsening social climate,” Lowrance said. “My identity is not a political movement, but the students who go unpunished for harassing people like me, and the teachers who ignore the harassment, seem to have a political message.” 

He went on to say that history teachers should be allowed to display bipartisan campaign posters as they are in fact educational. 

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School Board member Heather Felton was an adviser of the Rainbow Alliance at Southeast High School for five years until she left the school in 2023.

She brought up the Equality Florida v. DeSantis settlement and warned her fellow board members that they cannot prohibit things like rainbow stickers (such as Richard Tatem suggested) or personal photos of families (like Cindy Spray suggested). 

Kalianna Finan, a senior at Braden River High and a member of the Student Government Association, said she doesn’t think teachers should be allowed to talk about politics or social movements. She said her peers have become pretty verbally opinionated and she has had multiple teachers express their beliefs as well.

Finan said she has personally experienced differing of opinions with a teacher and felt her points were brushed off and her words twisted.

“While I have been given the gift of being firm on where I stand and not afraid to speak my mind, I do think that closed off the ability to have a healthy discussion in front of the class without one side looking like the right answer and that can affect the learning of many.” 

Daniel Bryan-Beachler, now retired, taught at Lakewood Ranch High School from 2001 to 2025. 

“The school board lawyer has to come up with the right words, because it's all about law,” Bryan-Beachler said. “There's already plenty of wording to guide teachers when it comes to politics.”

Bryan-Beachler said teachers should be able to know their boundaries when in the classroom. He said the teacher should be able to throw out a question and have the students debate without including their own opinion. 

“They have to help the kids pass the test that the state has required the kids to pass,” Bryan-Beachler said. “They don't have time to try and get creative with ways to influence kids to one political way or another.” 

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Politics and social movements in schools was also a topic of conversation at the Women of Manatee County Republican Club Candidate Forum which was held on April 10. Four school board candidates — JT White, Camden Bedinghaus and Jonathan Mullis — and current School Board Chair Cindy Spray answered how they feel about the topic. 

Spray and White are running for District 2 and Bedinghaus and Mullis are running for District 5. 

“I have toured schools and seen some things — posters, flags and other propaganda stuff — that I came back to my superintendent and the principal and said, ‘Get it out,’” Spray said at the forum. “This is a government entity and protesting, feel free, but you can't do it on our campus.” 

Bedinghaus said the only flag he believes should be present in classrooms is the American flag. 

“We're (Gen Z) the most anxious, confused and suicidal generation in American history,” Bedinghause said. “To fix that, we’ve got to make sure our classrooms are a place of truth and knowledge.”

Mullis said he believes there is no place for politics in the schools, because kids are already overwhelmed from things like social media. 

“Social media is extremely divisive,” Mullis said. “We don't need any more division in the classrooms. We don't want kids at this age getting into politics. The holes that they can go down are just crazy and we need them focused on their future.”

Barbour said school years are when children are finding themselves and discovering their beliefs. 

"They can decide for themselves what they think," Barbour said. "Trying to ban support of political advocacy limits the right to free speech that Americans are guaranteed to have. Not being shown or taught about different groups of people and what they fight for limits diversity and allows for hate to be spread."