Anti-American Teacher and BLM Activist Suspended

Language Arts teacher Amy Donofrio, who works at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida has been removed from her teaching duties after she refused to take down a Black Lives Matter flag. The Florida Times-Union reports that Donofrio, who is known for her advocacy and outreach work with Black students, is under investigation by the school district for the incident. She made national news this past week after school administrators insisted she take the Black Lives Matter flag outside of her classroom down, to which she refused.

She believes that the pressure to take the flag down is only happening because the local community has recently held meetings regarding a potential name change to the school. Donofrio had live-streamed some of the public’s comments about the name change, with clips going viral on Twitter.

Though Robert E. Lee personally renounced slavery as "morally and politically evil," the Civil War legend often pops up in discussions related to Black Lives Matter, despite his reputation being well respected by the majority of the public for many decades according to polling.

But Donofrio's video sessions went far beyond just criticizing a long dead civil warrior. One such clip featured alumnus Joey Stevens proclaiming that Jesus supported slavery. The same evening the school demanded she take down the flag, it was removed. She replaced the flag with a sign that read, “Lee admin took down the Black Lives Matter sign last night.” It was initially believed she was suspended, but News4jax reported that Donofrio has been “administratively reassigned to paid, non-teaching duties” as of Thursday.

Central Florida has also witnessed several instances where LGBTQ flags and symbols were displayed alongside other left wing emblems despite Orange County's School Board chairwoman being a conservative.

Several community leaders, including Republican Federation chairman Lou Marin, extolled chairwoman Theresa Jacobs to do more to stop the politicization of the public school system in Orange County.

“The distrct has opened a human resources matter to review allegations of potential misconduct under school board policy and the Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession in Florida,” the district said in a statement. “The presumption of innocence applies; however, Ms. Donofrio has been removed from school and classroom duties while the matter is reviewed.”