In a functioning Florida Legislature, state Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, would be an outlier.
In this Florida Legislature, he’s dangerously mainstream.
Like Republicans in other states, Florida lawmakers claim that public education’s main problem is not a shortage of teachers and bus drivers or helping students who fell behind during the pandemic. No, the problem is school districts forcing an LGTBQ agenda on children and parents.
The Legislature passed the so-called “don’t say gay” bill (HB 1557) to address that imaginary problem. A similar law (HB 7) prohibits teachers from discussing race while mentioning racism. No evidence supported either bill. They are more contrived grievances — the fuel of Republican campaigns.
Randy Fine didn’t stop when the session ended. He remains unburdened by facts.
The lawmaker sent a letter Aug. 11 to Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, asking the department to investigate “an alleged sexual assault between a ‘transgender girl’ and another girl” at Johnson Middle School in Melbourne. Fine said the attack occurred in a bathroom.
The attacker, Fine claimed, had been “taking advantage of the open bathrooms policy” advocated by Brevard School Board members Misty Belford and Jennifer Jenkins. Fine has feuded with both board members, especially over their support for a mask requirement. Fine has called Jenkins a “whore.”
That word again: ‘Woke’
Because Belford and Jenkins were under pressure “to justify their ‘woke’ open bathrooms police,” Fine wrote, “I have zero confidence that this alleged assault will be investigated openly.” He warned that “politicians and bureaucrats are already working overtime” to resist any investigation.
School district officials denied the claims. There was no record of a complaint. Fine said only that “multiple parents” had approached him.
Several days ago, after a three-week investigation, Melbourne Police said it found “no evidence” to support Fine’s assault claim. Rather than acknowledge that he was wrong, Fine pivoted.
His letter, Fine claimed in an email exchange with the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, “exposed a cover-up of a ‘transgender’ sexual assault.”
How can there be a cover-up of an incident that didn’t happen?
Fine then stated that the parents “had the wrong school.” The “sexual assault,” he said, happened at Space Coast High School.
Fine added, “That’s what happens when parents ask questions to their school district about a ‘transgender’ sexual assault they’ve heard about, the bureaucrats refuse to tell them anything, and parents start talking to each other.”
False on two counts
But that second “sexual assault” claim also is false. Sheriff’s investigators found insufficient evidence for criminal charges related to the incident at the high school.
We asked Fine why he sent the letter to Diaz without checking on which school he was talking about. Fine responded, “Since you aren’t bright enough to understand what’s pretty straightforward, I’ll stop wasting my time.”
Ideally, Melbourne Police would bill Fine for the wasted three weeks. His 2019 financial disclosure showed a net worth of $24 million. He can afford it.
The wider problem is that Fine embodies the ongoing strategy by Republican politicians nationwide to discredit public education. A recent Gallup poll showed that 14% of Republicans have “a great deal or quite a lot of confidence” in public schools. That’s down 20 points in two years.
The GOP campaign is based on lies. Polls show support for not teaching about gender identity in grades K-3, a key part of the “don’t say gay” law — but no such teaching was taking place.
Similarly, polls show support for “parents’ rights” in schools. But Florida parents always have had rights. Now, they can sue school districts if they believe those rights were violated.
Imagine the frivolous and nuisance lawsuits that will result if parents like Fine refuse to believe the truth.
Last October, the parents of a 7-year-old Brevard County girl who has Down Syndrome claimed that teachers wrongly tied a mask on her face when the district required them for students. Fine, Gov. DeSantis and the other usual GOP suspects sided with the parents, who filed a $100 million lawsuit.
As Florida Today reported, however, a police investigation found no evidence that the child ever was in danger. Her parents made false statements, investigators said, and staged photos of their daughter to raise money.
State Attorney Phil Archer agreed. He found no reason to file charges. Fine’s response? “Phil Archer is certainly free to stand with those who broke the law, force-masking children.”
This is why the criticism of Broward County School Board members in a statewide grand jury report is reverberating across the state. Those who truly value public education cannot give Republicans any openings — because if they don’t have the facts, they’ll just make them up.
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The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
