Watch: Florida Teacher Faces Investigation after Showing Disney Film in Class

A Florida teacher is accused of violating the state's "Don't Say Gay" law and says she is being investigated for alleged "indoctrination" for showing her fifth-grade students the Disney movie "Strange World," according to the New York Post.

Reports said that her students were "interrogated" by investigators after the film was screened for them.

The teacher, Jenna Barbee, took to social media, posting a video on TikTok in which she shared, "I am the teacher that's under investigation with the Florida Department of Education for indoctrination for showing a Disney movie."

@becomingabetterbarbee I am the teacher. Here is the truth. #indoctrination #disneymovie #disney #strangeworld #viraltweet ♬ original sound - Jenna Lynn

The film includes "a character who is biracial and gay," CNN noted. While the character's sexuality is not the focus of the movie, his incidental affection for another male character was evidently sufficient to spark a complaint from one student's mother – a member of the school board named Shannon Rodriguez, who characterized the movie as a matter of the teacher "imposing" an agenda and suggested that film being shown was an attempt by "this minority to infiltrate our schools..."

"In the post, Barbee explained she played the Disney movie to a class which was partially full after a day of standardized testing," CNN detailed. "She also said she had previously-signed permission slips from all the parents, allowing the students to watch a movie rated PG."

Rodriguez insists that getting permission slips for the film was not enough; she "said at the district meeting Barbee broke school policy because she did not get the specific movie approved by school administration and said the teacher is 'playing the victim,'" CNN relayed.

Barbee pushed back, CNN reported, saying, "A school board member, an elected official of power, who was supposed to be nonpartisan, is allowed to present to the public that she is Christian and that God appointed her to the board."

"And yet it is indoctrinat[ion] that I showed a Disney movie," Barbee added. "I'm a first-year teacher."

According to the Post, "Barbee said Rodriguez – an apparent member of the rightwing group Moms for Liberty – has plotted a 'rampage to get rid of every form of representation out of our schools' as a school board member."

Barbee defended the choice of movie, noting its environmental themes, and indicated that the fact that the film includes a gay character should not make it forbidden. She also spoke to a need for acceptance of diverse people.

"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 this community as well and it's not a big deal to me so I said OK that's awesome, you do you," the teacher said, according to the Post. "Not pushing anything, just being accepting. That's what I do."

But that, Rodriguez suggested at the school board meeting, was the problem.

"Allowing movies such as this assist teachers in opening a door for conversations that have no place in our classroom," Rodriguez said.

The school district seemed inclined to agree. CNN published the contents of a note that the school district sent out to the parents of students in Barbee's class:

"Yesterday, the Disney movie 'Strange World' was shown in your child's classroom. While not the main plot of the movie, parts of the story involves a male character having and expressing feelings for another male character."

"In the future, this movie will not be shown," the missive went on to say. "The school administration and the district's Professional Standards Dept is currently reviewing the matter to see if further corrective action is required."

Such action could have severe consequences for Barbee; as CNN noted, "Teachers who violate the state policy can be suspended or have their teaching licenses revoked."

The original version of the "Don'[t Say Gay" law forbade classroom acknowledgement of LGBTQ+ people and issues affecting them in classrooms through third grade – or in any classroom where, the vaguely worded law said, such topics would not be suitable for students, given their developmental level.

A recent expansion of the law now criminalizes such classroom acknowledgement through high school.

Barbee effectively challenged the idea that simply hearing someone express the truth about their orientation or admit to same-sex attraction amounts to "classroom instruction" as forbidden by the law. She told the media that "her students didn't think anything of the gay character until the investigation began and they were interrogated by state investigators one by one," the Post recounted.

On the other hand, that questioning of students by state investigators could inflict harm, Barbee argued.

"Do you know the trauma that is going to cause to some of my students?" the Post quoted the teacher as saying. "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?"