I watched on Tuesday night as the Sarasota School Board unanimously voted to recommend Bridget Ziegler’s resignation in the wake a sex-scandal that has rocked this community since it was first reported earlier this month. Christian Ziegler is the Florida Republican Party chairman and husband of Bridget Ziegler.
The resolution to recommend Bridget Ziegler resign in the wake of a sex scandal that has rocked the community since news of it broke earlier this month was approved by the Sarasota School Board on Tuesday night, and I watched as it passed four to one. Christian Ziegler, the leader of the Florida Republican Party, has been charged with raping Bridget after they had a prior intimate encounter. No charges have been brought against Christian Ziegler, and he has denied the accusations leveled against him.
While Christian is the subject of the more significant legal allegations, Bridget has also come under fire for what some see as hypocrisy. As I stated next week in a post:
Bridget Ziegler, who acknowledged having sex with her husband and the alleged victim, has come under fire for her vocal opposition to LGBTQ-inclusive education and books while also being in a lesbian relationship. Bridget played a key role in the development of Florida’s” Do n’t Say Gay” bill, which forbids teachers from discussing gender identity and, in some cases, same-sex relationships.
I discussed the irony with teachers and parents on Monday before I arrived in Sarasota. Jessica Thomason remarked,” It’s crazy because you have this woman and her husband who are so concerned with keeping kids from hearing anything that does n’t completely align with their values. Therefore, it seems as though I’ll have to explain a three-way point to an 11-year-old this week.
About 200 people were gathered in the parking lot outside the school board building when I arrived there about an hour before the meeting. Do n’t Say Three- Way signs were carried gleefully by gray-haired women wearing cardigans. Additionally,” Threesome strikes, you’re out!” One cheery, bearded man was sporting a T-shirt that read,” Real women are n’t transphobic bigots!”
There were also a dozen Bridget supporters. A woman carrying a Bible who said she was going to read one verse to encourage the audience not to judge Ziegler and the man with the bullhorn who told me Bridget “was n’t the one who illegally masked our kids during Covid” were the other two people I spoke with.
Gail Foreman, a cultural studies instructor at Sarasota’s Booker High School, was waiting for me when the crowd gathered to register to speak during the open comment session. Foreman, her wife, and two additional teachers were watching the meeting livestream when I got there. The living room was decorated with at least 11 Santa figurines, two Christmas trees, and pine boughs. Foreman sat closest to the TV while wearing a rainbow tie-dye T-shirt, cracking smart as the situation seemed to demand it. She rolled her eyes when one of the board members offered a dozen mealy-mouthed words of encouragement for Ziegler. Yes, because without her, his happy ass would n’t have been sitting here. She yelled,” They should have canceled him a second time!” when another guy stood up to encourage Ziegler, pleading with the crowd to” spare d’s thoughts for’a mother of three” and boasting that he had been” canceled half.”
Foreman had informed me over the phone the day before that the” Do n’t Say Gay” law had fostered a culture of silence among queer students at Booker High School. Teachers felt helpless to teach students about identity and sexuality. I stopped by Booker, which serves about 1,200 students in the North Sarasota district where Bridget Ziegler resides, on the way to the school board meeting. More than 60 % of Booker’s students come from low-income families, and almost three-quarters of them are Black or brown. I questioned a boy wearing braces who had been watching the Ziegler drama as students filtered out of the school for the day. He was aware that she had participated in a” sex threesome” and had spoken out against LGBTQ people.
On the phone, Foreman said to me,” It’s difficult for me to teach when [students ] ask a question. I pause and consider it before saying,” I’ll tell you what, I do n’t know if I’m going to get into trouble.”
We observed as each speaker took the podium from Foreman’s living room. One speaker started off by saying,” I am here for my pound of flesh.” ” I rejoice in the Ziegler era’s fall!” When she mentioned her lesbian child, another person teased her, saying that Ziegler” created laws that ostracize, shame, and vilify” children like hers. Bridget was asked by another speaker,” What else are you hiding?” Foreman grinned. She remarked,” Bridget’s up that going’blah, blahe.
Foreman, however, remained silent and nodded at the screen when a young man used his three minutes of common commentary to identify himself as bisexual and discuss the significance of the gay role models he discovered at his Sarasota high school. Foreman’s wife gave her a tissue to wipe her eyes after he finished speaking.
Bridget Ziegler received harsh criticism during Tuesday’s meeting, but she made no indication that she was prepared to end the relationship. She reminded the other board members that the resolution “has no teeth” during the meeting. She is correct; the governor alone has the power to compel her resignation. The two teachers who were watching the meeting with Foreman, who requested that I never use their names, however, told me that they felt hopeful for the first time in years in the middle of the public comment session.
One person said,” We’re just starting to expose the corruption.” ” Things are finally beginning to emerge. Finally, the story’s villains are n’t the teachers.
It’s like a moment of relief, the other said.” It feels like sometimes we could be moving in the right direction with all this coming to light and all these people speaking out in favor of the LGBTQ community now. ” People might be looking at her now and thinking,” You know, even we went very much,” she said. The resolution to recommend Bridget Ziegler resign in the wake of a sex scandal that has rocked the community since news of it broke earlier this month was approved by the Sarasota School Board on Tuesday night, and I watched as it passed four to one. Christian Ziegler, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party, is Bridget’s husband.
I watched on Tuesday night as the Sarasota School Board unanimously voted to recommend Bridget Ziegler’s resignation in the wake a sex-scandal that has rocked this community since it was first reported earlier this month. Christian Ziegler is the Florida Republican Party chairman and husband of Bridget Ziegler.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/12/the-sarasota-school-board-wants-bridget-ziegler-to-resign-shes-not-budging/
