A Florida teacher is under investigation after she showed her 10 and 11-year-old students a Disney movie featuring a gay character.
Jenna Barbee, who is in her first year as a teacher, has doubled down on her actions after receiving backlash for showing the youngsters the animated flick Strange World.
The teacher - who works at Winding Waters school in Hernando county, Florida - has since insisted the movie was relevant to the curriculum, which involved learning about earth science and ecosystems.
In a TikTok video, Barnee said one of the kids' mothers - who is a school board member - reported her to the local school board. The teacher says the parent was on a "rampage to get rid of every form of representation out of our schools."
Check out her video:Barbee said she was reported to Florida’s state education department for "indoctrination".
She is now under investigation for potentially having violated the Parental Rights in Education Act, known widely as the "don’t say gay" law, which was introduced by Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis last year.
It prohibits teachers talking to their students - of any age - about gender and sexual identity.
Explaining why she showed her fifth grade students the film in her TikTok video, Barbee said she had wanted to give the children a break after they took exams at the start of the day.
Check out the trailer for Strange World:The 2022 movie is about a team of explorers who search for a rare plant that supplies energy for their society.
One of the film's main characters, Ethan Clade, voiced by Jaboukie Young-White, is gay.
Barbee went on to say that she didn't choose the film because it had a gay character. She continued: "I have a lot of fifth grade students who have come to me this year, long before showing this movie, talking about how they’re part of [the LGBTQ] community. It’s not a big deal to me. So I just said, OK, awesome, I’m not pushing anything, just being accepting. That’s what I do."
Amid the investigation, her students are being interrogated by state officials, according to Barbee, who said: "Do you know the trauma that is going to cause to some of my students? Some of them can barely come and have a conversation with me, and are just getting comfortable with me, and now an investigator is allowed to come and interrogate them. Are you kidding me? What is that showing them?"
Over the weekend, the Tallahassee Democrat identified the parent and board member responsible for reporting Barbee. Her name is Shannon Rodriguez and she is part of the right-wing group Moms for Liberty.
As reported by The Guardian, Rodriguez is said to have accused Barbee of violating school policy at a school board meeting last week.
"It is not a teacher’s job to impose their beliefs upon a child," she reportedly said. "Allowing movies such as this assist teachers in opening a door for conversations that have no place in our classroom."