Today on “First Coast Connect,” our weekly Media Roundtable included Charles Griggs from the Jacksonville Free Press, Jacksonville Business Journal Editor Timothy Gibbons and WJCT reporter Lindsey Kilbride (01:13). We also spoke with Florida Education Association President Joanne McCall (33:31), and Fuada Velic told us about Saturday’s Srebrenica genocide remembrance in Jacksonville.
Media Roundtable
Our panel discussed the local transgender teen who has filed a lawsuit against the St. Johns County School District. The suit claims Drew Adams is being forced to use a gender-neutral bathroom instead of more accessible boys’ bathrooms, which match his gender identity. Also discussed were Duval County school grades, Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL4)’s leading the effort against seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean and the Jacksonville City Council’s approving funding for a pilot program to fight opioid addiction and renovating the historic Laura Street Trio of buildings.
Joanne McCall
Thousands of educators from every state are meeting in Boston this week to talk about the most pressing issues facing students, schools and the teaching profession at the National Education Association’s 155th Annual Meeting. The group includes a big cohort of teachers from Florida, and they’re speaking out. McCall said they oppose some federal proposals under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and recent laws passed by the Florida Legislature.
Srebrenica
In April of 1992, the government of the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia. Over the next several years, Bosnian-Serb forces, with the backing of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army, targeted both Bosnian Muslim and Croatian civilians with atrocities resulting in the deaths of some 100,000 people. It was the worst act of genocide since the Nazi regime. At 9 a.m. Saturday, a special event called Srebenica is set to take place at Friendship Fountain to bring awareness of the Bosnian genocide and pay tribute to the victims.
Kevin Meerschaert can be reached at kmeerschaert@wjct.org, 904-358-6334 or on Twitter at @KMeerschaertJax
