Pinellas County School Board in Largo, Florida, banned a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) representative after he spoke out against Critical Race Theory at a school board meeting.
“Critical Race Theory, summarized, is a compiled agenda meant to be taught as curriculum in schools about how racial inequality has oppressed the individual through race in America,” TPUSA field representative Emmanuel Oramas said during a Pinellas County School Board meeting last week.
But the school board promptly interrupted Oramas to inform him that he was only allowed to speak “to the agenda item that the board is going to be acting upon.” “One [agenda item] deals with a ‘Leader in Me’ training, and one deals with an ‘iObservation’ training,” the school board member said. “It’s my understanding that those do not deal with Critical Race Theory or even culturally responsive teaching.”
Oramas, however, maintained that he was indeed commenting on material relevant to what the school board would be voting on, stating, “the vocabulary of that agenda item is specific, and I am specifically going toward 7.10.”
The TPUSA representative then went on to explain that the United States “was founded on the beautiful idea of freedom, self-expression, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“Yes, our country saw great injustices, but it evolved successfully in ending it and providing equality for all,” he continued. “The American people have had a long and proud history in eradicating oppression, hate, and inequality — unlike any country on earth.”
“Amongst the many immigrants that have come [to the U.S.] are my family,” Oramas added. “My grandparents fled Cuba as exiles. They left an idea known throughout the world as the most oppressive form of human enslavement ever: communism.”
Oramas continued:
Upon leaving [Cuba], we brought our culture — a culture of pride, hard work, and a need for individualism. An entrepreneurial spirit so strong that it built both Miami and Tampa from a once swamp. Principles and values beating parallel to that of the American heart.
I’ll be damned if me or my children will stand for this load of crap to be taught in our schools, and to teach us to be inferior, shamed, or placed with chips on our shoulders by some myth that our country was founded on the hatred of man toward another man by their skin color.
Following those remarks, Oramas was escorted by police out of the building, and told that he was banned from speaking at future Pinellas County School Board meetings.
In another video — filmed via cellphone — Oramas can be heard asking the officer, “Am I being banned from this building?”
“Well, yeah, you’re not allowed to come back, unless they invite you back,” the officer replied.
Oramas then pointed out that the board meetings are held in a public building, “paid by taxpayer dollars,” to which the officer responded by informing the TPUSA representative that he will be “subject to arrest” if he were to return to a school board meeting.
“You’re being trespassed from here,” the officer said. “So yes, we block you off the property right now. If you come back, then you’re subject to arrest for trespassing.”
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” Oramas reacted. “All I did was speak at a meeting. Unbelievable.”
The first budget item approves $854,041.49 for “Leader in Me” training materials, which TPUSA says pushes equity and diversity training — under the guise of “professional development trainings and materials” — into professional development trainings, which later end up in classrooms.
The second budget item approves a $234,000.00 purchase of a subscription for Learning Services International (LSI)’s iObservation software, which the organization says is a professional development and observation/evaluation software, responsible for funding “anti-racism” and other initiatives.
“The pandemic has surfaced many long-standing inequities including systemic racism and unbalanced assessment systems,” LSI said in an April 2021 post on its website. “What we do now matters because we can keep those most historically marginalized at the center of all redesign, of all policies, of all re-imagining of the future of schooling.”
According to TPUSA, 18 speakers spoke during the board meeting, with an overwhelming majority of them sharing their concerns over items in Agenda 7.10. The organization adds that the Pinellas County School Board, however, voted 6-1 in favor of the agenda.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.