Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Thank you.
16:59 This is a problem.
17:29 Thank you.
19:29 You know, it can be shiny, bright colors, whatever we need, but
19:15 a popular campaign and also educating our students.
19:17 Way back in 2018, 2019, one of the things we realized back then
19:22 was student to student was some of the best communication
19:26 because adults standing, you know, the sage on the stage.
19:29 Well, let the students smash them.
19:30 Right.
19:31 But if the students are communicating with each other, the
19:35 dangers and the importance, and that’s a different message.
19:39 That’s one of the, that’s beautiful.
19:41 That’s one of the reasons why when we did our drug diversion
19:47 program, that social media aspect of it, where they’re speaking
19:51 their language to communicate to them that they’re better
19:54 without it.
19:54 Well, tobacco doesn’t have the same kind of consequence, but we
19:57 can still have some kind of campaign that communicates to them.
20:00 They even with just nicotine, they’re better without it.
20:03 So I think we, I absolutely get behind that, and we’ve got the
20:06 right people and the right partners.
20:08 I did want to just highlight, I’m going to mention it again
20:10 tonight because it’s such a hot topic right now, continuing to
20:12 be, but especially right now.
20:14 Tomorrow, actually, our drug-free coalition has been sending out,
20:18 I don’t know if you guys are on that email list, but tomorrow,
20:22 February 25th, at, from 2 to 3, there is, I think it’s a webinar.
20:29 They can register for navigating conversations about vaping with
20:32 youth, and it’s got, it’s just, it’s for parents, like, how do
20:35 you talk to your kids about this?
20:36 And so, you know, not the be-all, end-all, but it’s just one
20:39 more resource that just happened to be in my inbox when we were
20:41 having this conversation, so I wanted to share that.
20:45 That’s from theuplifters.org, which is the new name for the
20:48 prevention coalition that Brevard County is a part of.
20:52 So I was just going to mention that as well.
20:54 That’s all I’ve got right now.
21:01 I concur with the smashing, but, you know, I think it’s great
21:05 that we listen to the constituents, and we know it’s an issue,
21:10 so I think us, you know, not rushing ahead and discussing, you
21:15 know, disciplinary issues and stuff now, but, you know, getting,
21:19 asking, you know, staff to come back with some recommendation, I
21:22 think that’s really smart.
21:23 This is a really good time for us to go back into the schools,
21:26 talk to our principals, get their ideas of what could help, what
21:30 they think could help, you know, it’s always good to get their
21:34 opinions on things, and some things that have worked.
21:36 You know, not every school I’m hearing are the same issues, so
21:40 maybe they’ve done some things that we, you know, could
21:43 implement district-wide, so I think that’s really good.
21:47 Ms. Campbell, you talked about dating back to 2018, yes, I was
21:51 in the classroom at the time, and it was a crazy time where even
21:55 students were doing this in class and getting caught, you know,
21:58 because they thought they were, you know, bulletproof because it
22:01 wasn’t smoke, you know, but you could, you know, you could smell
22:04 the fruit punch flavors, you know, all that kind of stuff, and
22:07 they were getting caught.
22:08 But we’re learning every day some of the adverse effects of the
22:13 vaping itself, not just the nicotine, but the other chemicals
22:19 that they put in there.
22:21 I know of a young man that works at one of the city’s, city
22:24 employee that was actually put in intensive care because, you
22:28 know, he caught something, some kind of infection just from the
22:31 vaping, and he’s a young guy.
22:34 And, you know, he’s, talk about scared straight now, I mean, he’s,
22:38 I think he’s still in the hospital, and it wasn’t from smoking
22:41 cigarettes, it was just the vaping part of it.
22:44 So, you know, information to these young people is important.
22:50 You know, they thought it was absolutely, it was sold to them as,
22:53 there’s nothing wrong with this, this is just air, you know, it’s
22:56 just vapor, you know.
22:58 So, and we realize there’s so much now that we know in 2026 than
23:02 we did in 2018.
23:04 So, I think it’s really good, and it’s smart of this board to
23:07 understand it’s a problem, we’re going to take time, we’re going
23:10 to look into it, and, you know, together with staff,
23:14 communications, and this board, I know we’re going to address
23:17 that.
23:17 So, thanks, Mr. Chair.
23:19 So, I think, as far as the educational piece, we’re all in the
23:22 grants, we allow staff to come up with kind of, Ms. Dampierre to
23:26 kind of lead the charge, and then bring it to us in our one-on-ones,
23:29 and then they can bring back kind of that to us at a school
23:32 board meeting, and we can discuss it openly so that the public
23:34 knows.
23:35 Is that good?
23:35 Okay.
23:37 The other piece.
23:38 Quick question.
23:38 Yes, sir.
23:38 You’re also, as you’re in our direction to the staff, is that
23:43 you would also be coordinating with GCR to get all that
23:47 coordinated?
23:49 Yeah, because they’re going to need to coordinate with all the
23:51 principals.
23:52 It’ll probably be in the next principal meeting to have some
23:54 sort of breakout.
23:55 I met with, I had, I think, six total principals that I either
23:58 talked to in a group or individually, like, let them move
24:01 throughout everybody.
24:03 So, not only there, but also facilities and stuff like that, you
24:07 know, because what they were telling is, is that not only are
24:10 they in there vaping, but they’re also destroying the bathrooms.
24:13 So, like, toilets and sinks and stuff like that being ripped off
24:16 the wall and everything else.
24:18 So, that’s one of the other reasons why they’re reducing the
24:20 bathrooms is not just because of the vapes, but because these
24:22 guys are, like, animals inside there.
24:24 So, facilities needs to be a part of the conversation and
24:26 everything else.
24:27 Mr. Gibbs, can you research the legality of us being able to
24:30 destroy the vapes and respond back to the board on that, too?
24:33 Just to see, is that, I mean…
24:34 Yeah, I’ll let the board know.
24:35 All right, thank you.
24:35 With sledgehammers and possibly explosions.
24:38 Probably not explosions.
24:42 Why not?
24:42 We don’t have to do that on campus.
24:44 It can be out in the field somewhere.
24:45 Yeah, we’ll do it.
24:46 And it also comes down to, like, other issues, such as what
24:49 types of batteries are in these devices.
24:51 I have no idea, because if it’s a lithium battery, it’s
24:53 hazardous material and must be disposed of properly.
24:56 We’ll take those out.
24:57 I feel like you’re finding every reason to say no, and I need
24:59 you to find a reason to say yes.
25:01 Go ahead and work towards finding a way to destroy them.
25:04 There’s, like, multiple layers of issues that we have to look at
25:06 when you’re talking about destroying something.
25:08 This guy is doing it, and there’s sparks coming out, and he
25:11 doesn’t seem to have a problem.
25:12 Now you sound like lawyers.
25:13 There’s not a problem.
25:14 Hand that down to Mr. Thomas, so he can be a part of it.
25:18 Oh, here, I got one for him.
25:18 I made one for everybody, so here you go.
25:20 We’ll pass them down.
25:21 Oh, it’s all?
25:22 Well, there’s both, if you would like one.
25:24 And I was like, look, I thought Ms. Campbell would be so proud
25:26 of me.
25:27 I used ChatGPT to make this image, and so look at that.
25:30 Equal opportunity smasher.
25:31 Make sure that females can do it, too.
25:33 Okay.
25:33 All right.
25:34 Mr. Chair, one last note on that one.
25:35 I just thought of it.
25:36 I’m sure the staff will think of it or have already thought of
25:38 it, but having the, looking for some kind of funding for some
25:41 kind of marketing campaign, whether it’s through a grant or
25:44 whatever, for anti-vaping.
25:46 I think you’re going to find that there’s a lot of money in this
25:48 space, so great idea.
25:50 Great idea.
25:50 That’s something.
25:51 Okay.
25:52 All right.
25:52 We’re good there?
25:53 Yes.
25:53 So the next piece that I wanted to talk about is that we know
25:56 across the board that a lot of the facilities that we’ve used,
25:59 the devices that we’ve used in order to try to control it,
26:02 monitor it, and stuff like that have failed.
26:05 So they have a series of devices that they’ve used inside the
26:08 bathrooms.
26:09 One is smoke device, so kids are using, like, they’re breathing
26:12 into their things to avoid it, they’re throwing, literally, they’re
26:16 smoking it and breathing it into the toilet is what some of them
26:19 are doing to keep it out, and they’re able to keep it from
26:22 actually even censoring it.
26:23 In some places, the smoke detector systems that they have, they’re
26:26 literally ripping them off the wall and throwing them into the
26:29 toilet.
26:30 So there’s been a lot of mishaps with a lot of the devices
26:32 because the people didn’t understand the schools.
26:36 So I had a couple of device manufacturers that deal with the
26:39 Defense Department and the, because they have the same problem
26:43 in the Navy, if you can believe it.
26:46 So one of the things that they have is devices that actually
26:49 monitor inside the Navy, but the thing is, is that inside the
26:52 Navy, it’s different because they have limited rights and they’re
26:55 allowed to do things.
26:56 So they have that, and then they also have in the Department of
26:59 Corrections, they have the same problem.
27:02 So in the Department of Corrections, they have it to where not
27:04 only are they monitoring inside, but they have one that
27:07 registers every kid that goes in and has a light up top that
27:09 says, okay, there’s more than one person, you can’t go in, there’s
27:12 just all these options.
27:12 So I said, okay, I said, it seems like we should, we have the
27:16 ability to find devices that are outside what’s been used before,
27:20 but the problem is, is that they said they can do anything.
27:23 So, for instance, you don’t have to have a device inside the
27:26 room, you can have a device that listens to the heat signature,
27:29 which puts out radio waves, and you can also have one that
27:32 listens to the sound, where you can have a rock concert going on,
27:35 and all of a sudden somebody hits a vape, and it picks it up,
27:38 and it signals back to the admin or whatever it is.
27:40 But how would you handle that if there was three people in the
27:42 bathroom?
27:44 Understand.
27:44 So what I said was, they are doing this in other spaces, why don’t
27:47 we find out what’s legal, and then bring that back, and let them
27:51 try to innovate, that’s all.
27:53 Like, if they come back and they say, we can’t do this, or it’s
27:55 illegal, or whatever, then we’re done.
27:57 But if they can find something, then we go out to RFP, or
28:00 whatever it is for it.
28:01 So Paul, actually, Mr. Gibbs, actually is working on putting
28:05 together a thing that says, this is what’s legal inside of the
28:08 monitoring of the bathroom.
28:10 Because what they were saying is, is that they have AI that does
28:14 not record, it just listens for events.
28:17 So if there’s a crack in the crystal, or in the porcelain, say,
28:20 for instance, it alerts.
28:21 It alerts up all of those things, and then there’s ways to tie
28:24 in cameras and everything else.
28:26 So I just said, way above my pay grade, Paul, if you can figure
28:29 out how much is inside there, and then maybe we’ll have one of
28:31 these groups try to put something together.
28:33 If they do, great.
28:34 If they don’t, no big deal, no cost on us.
28:36 Nobody’s looking to get any money.
28:37 So what do you guys think on that?
28:39 Good on that?
28:40 Go ahead, Mr. John.
28:42 I’m all for enforcement, but I also think we just need to focus
28:46 equal attention on prevention and having a consistent message
28:50 throughout the year on it.
28:52 Yeah.
28:53 I think it’s worth researching, because there might.
28:55 I mean, there might be some really great technology, though,
28:57 that we haven’t seen or haven’t been exposed to, but I would
29:00 like to know more about it, I guess.
29:01 Yeah, that’s it.
29:02 And just from the pure health standpoint, yeah, I’m 100% against
29:05 vaping in school, and I want to enforce the rules, but if we can
29:09 prevent them from doing it, you know, or educate them where they
29:12 don’t want to do it, then that’s, I think that would be cost-effective
29:15 as well.
29:16 I agree, but you’re okay with them researching and stuff like
29:18 that to see what comes up?
29:20 Absolutely.
29:20 Mr. Campbell, you good?
29:21 Yep.
29:21 Okay, we’re all good now?
29:22 Yep.
29:23 Okay, that’s all I’ve got.
29:24 Does anybody else have anything else that they wish to discuss?
29:26 Yeah, I just, I can’t let the conversation go by without saying
29:29 one thing.
29:30 It is unfortunate that the chair went out to the public with
29:34 something before having a conversation with the board.
29:38 We’ve had good conversations today, and before having a
29:40 conversation with the superintendent.
29:43 We can say no to requests for the press, and I think it’s always
29:48 a good idea.
29:49 I’m just going to put this out there as a reminder that the
29:52 chair speaks for the board, and sometimes the chair speaks ahead
29:56 of himself.
29:58 And I think this was a good conversation, and I feel like this
30:00 was a good conversation, and I feel like this needed to happen
30:02 before that happened.
30:02 So I’m just going to register my complaint with that, how that
30:06 happened, and that when we do it like this, where we’re bringing
30:10 in conversations with us all together, and we’re going to have
30:14 further conversations with the staff and the people who are
30:16 going to help make these decisions and help give us more
30:18 information, that is a better representation of what we as a
30:22 district want to do, what we as a board want to do.
30:25 So we’ve done good work today in this very brief conversation,
30:28 and getting some direction going, getting some thoughts going,
30:31 but this is the better process, and so I just had to, I didn’t
30:34 want to leave that unsaid before we walk away from this
30:38 conversation today.
30:39 That sounds great.
30:40 I think you completely misinterpreted and misunderstood what was
30:42 said.
30:43 So I was asked by the Fox News to, what were we going to do, and
30:46 I said, as a board member, I’m going to bring this before the
30:50 board and have this discussion, and that’s what we did.
30:53 So there’s nothing wrong with that.
30:54 There’s not me saying, we’re going to move forward to do this.
30:56 We’re going to move forward to do that.
30:58 We’re going to have this discussion.
30:59 That is completely within the right of the school board chair.
31:02 That is completely within the right, within any of the other
31:04 board members, to have a conversation that says that they’re
31:06 going to bring something forward.
31:07 So I would respectfully disagree with you in the conversation
31:11 that you had.
31:12 Well, Mr. Chair, when you tell the public that we’re going to
31:14 start expelling students, that’s a different conversation than I’m
31:17 going to bring this forward.
31:18 We’re part of a conversation, and I made the clearance at the
31:20 beginning of it to talk about it.
31:21 I’m glad that you did that.
31:23 Thank you for doing that.
31:24 I missed the entire news.
31:25 I didn’t see it, so I didn’t.
31:26 It doesn’t matter.
31:26 It’s that we were going to bring it forward before the board.
31:28 That’s completely within the right of what I have.
31:30 I actually had conversations at the beginning of it and decided
31:33 to explain that to the public.
31:35 So there’s nothing wrong with that.
31:36 That’s within the scope of a school board chairman or any other
31:38 board member.
31:39 Are we all good?
31:40 All good.
31:40 I have one more thing before we adjourn.
31:41 Go.
31:41 Yep, yep.
31:42 Okay.
31:42 Board, obviously our district is not exempt from all the other
31:46 districts that have been seeing
31:48 different demonstrations that are going on around the state,
31:50 around the country, and currently
31:53 we have a policy in place for disorder and demonstration is what
31:56 we have, which is sort of kind of like
31:58 I think it’s hitting lightly on what it looks like if a student
32:01 is going to hold a protest
32:02 on school sites.
32:04 And so I am just asking, I have done a little bit of research on
32:07 this and consulted with a
32:08 few other people in different districts on what it looks like
32:10 from their district standpoint
32:11 and what they are doing.
32:13 I think it would be wise of us to go ahead and look at that
32:15 policy, which the policy is
32:17 55-20, and go ahead and probably put some more teeth to this
32:20 policy that is very specific.
32:22 It’s nonpartisan in nature.
32:23 It’s just to protect the integrity of our school sites being a
32:26 learning environment and not becoming
32:28 a ground place for demonstrations to take place.
32:31 And so I’m going to pass out, and I’ll give everyone, Paul, I
32:34 think I made copies of all
32:35 these, a couple of suggestions.
32:38 Obviously we can add this on a future agenda and kind of work
32:41 through it.
32:42 But just to put some more teeth behind what we’re doing here and
32:46 make sure that we are
32:47 all on the same page, because I have heard from parents all over
32:49 the place how frustrated
32:51 they were that this was taking place on our school sites.
32:53 And so I had to clarify, a lot of what was going on was off of
32:56 school site, and children
32:58 100% have the right to protest outside of schools.
33:01 Parents 100% have the right to check their children out of our
33:04 school and go protest outside
33:05 of the school.
33:05 That exists.
33:06 That is their right to do so.
33:08 But our kids are in the classroom to learn.
33:11 And so when they’re being exposed to different demonstrations
33:14 that are not advantageous to their
33:15 learning environment, we need to make sure that we have the
33:18 tools in place that we can
33:19 respond and respond equally across the board.
33:22 So I’m just asking in the future, can we go ahead and look at
33:25 the next upcoming workshop,
33:26 Mr. Chair, possibly adding 5520 on there and work through this
33:31 policy to put some more teeth
33:32 to it and hopefully come out with something that’s good and
33:36 across the board equally fair.
33:37 Paul, when is the next workshop that we have?
33:40 Do you have that by any chance?
33:42 I think it’s at the next board meeting day.
33:43 March 10th.
33:45 All right.
33:45 Do you think that March 10th is an early enough time for us to
33:49 kind of put this on the agenda,
33:51 have a little bit of thought process?
33:52 I can bring you Neola’s template so the board can review what Neola
33:56 recommends and what our
33:57 current policy is and you guys give us direction on where you
34:01 want to go.
34:02 Perfect.
34:03 Paul, did you get a copy of the policy that I just proposed to
34:05 go to?
34:06 Can we, since we’re going to be meeting with Ms. Pam Dampierre
34:09 over the communication stuff
34:11 possibly, do you think that we could meet with Ms. Pam Dampierre
34:13 prior to the 10th over
34:15 some of this stuff too?
34:16 Yeah, absolutely.
34:16 I mean, I can give her a copy of it if she wants to see the
34:19 policy as well to see if
34:20 there’s any issues that she sees because obviously we will have
34:23 to look at the student code of
34:24 conduct because everything that we do obviously kind of correlates
34:27 back there to how we handle
34:29 any kind of discipline that takes place.
34:30 So I’ll give you a copy of this.
34:33 I know Pam’s going, not the student code of conduct.
34:35 Thank you, Ms. Dampierre.
34:36 You’re the best.
34:36 But yeah, absolutely.
34:38 No, I absolutely agree with you.
34:41 I absolutely think this is something to take a look at.
34:43 I think that we can bring this back at the next meeting, I think,
34:46 for discussion, right?
34:48 And then staff can work through what we want and then bring it
34:51 back.
34:52 Dr. Rindell, does that sound about right for you?
34:54 Yeah, March 10th would be the next opportunity to start the
34:56 conversation.
34:56 Okay.
34:57 So let’s go ahead and do, if that’s okay, Paul, let’s put it on
35:00 the agenda for March 10th.
35:01 And if you can bring the NEOLA back and then if the board
35:03 members can kind of look at
35:04 what they’re looking at.
35:05 I wholeheartedly agree with you with some of the stuff that I
35:08 saw.
35:09 You know, it’s needed.
35:11 So thank you so much for bringing that forward.
35:13 We might have an acronym for that here that we might want to
35:17 name it as.
35:17 All right.
35:19 Everybody else good?
35:21 Yeah.
35:21 Do we need to talk about that?
35:22 There was, I don’t know if there was, if it would be easier to
35:25 hash out calendar while
35:26 we’re all here.
35:27 March 13th as an offsite was mentioned.
35:29 I don’t know if, when we talked about that, if everybody
35:31 remembered that that’s a student
35:32 holiday.
35:33 So for those of us who have kids at home, who might not want to
35:37 have a meeting, an all-day
35:38 meeting on a day that our kids are going to be off.
35:40 So we had an original date of March 3rd, and then Dr. Rendell
35:46 had some school sites that
35:48 he wasn’t able to move because they had some special events.
35:50 We tried to move it to March 17th, but Mr. Thomas, because we
35:54 wanted to try to host it
35:56 at his facility, was not able to acquire for March 17th.
35:59 So I thought March 13th, everybody had agreed that they could
36:03 make it, and we only plan
36:04 on being there for three hours in the morning.
36:06 Now, she does bring up a good point that we do have our students.
36:10 I’m okay with that, because my, but if, you know, that is a good
36:14 question to ask.
36:15 Is everybody still okay with meeting on the 13th for three hours?
36:18 Friday the 13th?
36:20 So, Rowan, I’ve been trying to get this thing all the way
36:23 through, so.
36:24 Well, and I don’t like meeting for the site of meetings, so if
36:27 we understood, and what
36:28 I sent to Lena was, I am available, but I prefer not to,
36:31 considering that it was a
36:32 student day off, you know, and since four of us are parents of BPS
36:37 students, you know,
36:37 I just want to make sure if I knew that before they said yes.
36:39 So if I knew kind of what the goal of the meeting was, that
36:43 would be probably helpful.
36:45 Yep, I can email it to you.
36:46 Yeah, I already said I’m available on that day, so I have an
36:49 evening commitment
36:50 that night, but I’m available during the day.
36:52 Yep, I can send it to you.
36:53 Okay.
36:53 And I think, Mr. Thomas, you’re good.
36:56 Jean, you’re good.
36:58 Okay, and Dr. Randell was good on that day, too, so I, any,
37:01 absolutely.
37:02 Well, send us, if I can get, uh, send to us so I can, you know,
37:05 calendar.
37:05 Yep, yep.
37:06 Sounds like a plan.
37:07 Okay, Mr. Thomas, are you good?
37:09 Everybody else is good across the board?
37:11 Good.
37:11 Dr. Randell, do you have anything?
37:13 I do not.
37:13 All right.
37:14 Mr. Gibbs, we’re good?
37:15 Yes.
37:15 Yep.
37:16 All right.
37:16 Meeting’s adjourned.
37:17 30 minutes.
37:28 We’ll be right back.