CNN reports from Brevard School Board meeting for ‘clickbait’ story featuring Moms for Liberty

VIERA, Fla. – The Brevard County School Board appeared in a CNN story this past week; however, conservative leaders fired back and said the outlet sought “clickbait” where “there was no story.”

Moms for Liberty Cofounder Tina Descovich told Florida’s Voice she did an interview with the outlet, which crafted a “hit piece” to report on the “so-called demise” of their organization.

“Moms for Liberty faces new challenges and growing pushback over its conservative education agenda,” the story’s headline reads.

The group, Moms for Liberty, has championed parental rights efforts, including endeavors to crack down on sexually inappropriate books in schools.

Descovich said the “premise” of the piece was that Moms for Liberty is “on the decline, that we’re not growing, which is all untrue.”

CNN featured the Brevard School Board meeting from Jan. 23 in their story and interviewed Democratic Board Member Jennifer Jenkins, along with a member of the group “Stop Moms for Liberty.”

The outlet did not interview any of the conservative-leaning board members in their story.

Brevard School Board Chair Megan Wright told Florida’s Voice she learned the outlet was coming from social media and believed the group, Stop Moms for Liberty, was “looking for the fight to kind of show up, you know, and it didn’t happen.”

Moms for Liberty had a few members in attendance to observe the meeting, which is one of the goals of the organization. Florida’s Voice has observed the group’s presence at several board meetings over the last school year.

During the hours-long meeting, board members voted on approving an agenda item on the book review committee’s recommendations to keep two books in high schools: Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Speakers wearing “Stop Moms for Liberty” T-shirts spoke during public comment. According to the group’s website, it aims to “fight back” against the “far-right extremist groups like Moms for Liberty who are pushing for book banning, and destroying public education.”

The board voted in alignment with the committee’s recommendations, as it has previously.

The video by CNN reporter Carlos Suarez ended the report with the following: “Now, after board members heard from a number of Stop Moms for Liberty supporters, the board decided to keep the books in the classroom.”

“They [CNN] spun the story in a way that made it sound like – oh, we voted to keep the books in because of the parent pressure… which, again, not at all accurate,” Wright said. “100% inaccurate, actually.”

Wright told Florida’s Voice the story “made it seem like there is a huge group of Moms for Liberty members pulling the strings in Brevard and making things happen.”

“That’s a flat out lie. That’s not what’s happening here,” Wright said. “They did it as a publicity stunt. I mean, obviously, that’s what it was, it was clickbait – to some degree.”

The report said Moms for Liberty’s “burgeoning influence in Republican national politics may be faltering, observers say.”

Additionally, in a video published on social media, Suarez said “some say the group’s influence is waning.”

Descovich said CNN reported that the group seemed to be in “decline” because “they didn’t show out in mass numbers.”

“There was nothing on the agenda that Moms for Liberty was was fighting for, or fighting against, and so we did what we usually do, and we send, you know, 1, 2, 3, members out to oversee – to follow what’s going on,” Descovich said.

“We were just doing the work, completely oblivious that CNN and this other organization were plotting to create this whole narrative so that they could get a higher viewership,” she said.

Board member Matt Susin, who previously served as chair, told Florida’s Voice this is “yet another example of a particular political party using our school board for their theatrics to perpetuate controversy.”

Susin said the focus should be on “serving students” instead of inviting media outlets to “witness a battle that didn’t even exist.”

“I feel sorry for the people that were misled into taking time away from their families and jobs to advocate for something we weren’t covering,” Susin said. “Sadly, it isn’t the first time and it probably won’t be the last.”

The CNN story featured board member Jenkins saying she believed the influence of Moms for Liberty is “fading as more parents begin to question the group’s positions.”

Wright said she was “not surprised” that Jenkins’ participated in the interview with CNN.

“She’s on her way out of office hasn’t really said she’s going to re-run for anything, so whether or not that’s kind of a grab at trying to stay relevant or have a voice that’s heard – maybe that’s what that was? I’m not really sure, but I’m not surprised by it,” Wright said.

Wright, who was endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022, also noted CNN never identified themselves or asked her for an interview.

“They were there all day long. They came to the workshop, and there was one point where their camera was in our face and I’m like, ‘What in the world is going on?’ This is a little absurd to me, and then nobody really warned us about it,” Wright said. “It was highly inappropriate.”

Descovich called the move “political or media theater” and said she thinks most national media outlets have learned if they put Moms for Liberty in the title of a headline, the story “gets a click.”

“Sometimes they create stories out of nothing – I think that might be what we saw happen here last week with CNN – because there was no story to be had,” Descovich said.

The group, “Stop Moms for Liberty,” thanked CNN for the story on Facebook.

Descovich responds to Jenkins’ jab

In the CNN piece, board member Jenkins called out the Moms for Liberty founders.

“This organization was founded by three school board members, and no one has ever asked them, what did you do while you were in the school board, when you have the power and the opportunity to make these changes you claim are so important to you?” Jenkins said.

Descovich was a former Brevard County school board member who was later selected to serve as the vice chairman and chairman. Jenkins unseated incumbent Descovich in the race for school board in 2020.

Descovich told Florida’s Voice while on the school board, her top priority was to help failing Endeavour Elementary School.

She said when she served as chair, her goal was to make sure that the school did not receive “another D or F.”

Descovich, along with board members and prominent leaders in the community, mentored the students and helped them with reading, math and other skills over the year.

The hard work paid off – Descovich received the news that the school received a historic “C” grade.

Descovich she said she discussed her achievement in detail with CNN, but that part never made the piece.

According to the Florida Department of Education, the school received a “D” rating in 2022-2023.

“It can be done. Unfortunately, the last couple of years Endeavour has been back down to a D,” Descovich said.

“Shame on CNN for not reporting the truth on that,” she said. “Let’s talk about that!”

The ‘positives’ CNN didn’t cover: Progress in Brevard

Wright said there is a lot the media could focus on; however, the focus was on “such a small, small thing in our district that really bears no relevance towards a child’s education success.”

She expressed frustration that there’s “so much positive that is happening,” in the district, yet “no one’s talking about any of that.”

“What I would love to see is that we make a shift towards some of the things that are going really, really well, ways that we’re winning, students that are doing exceptional things, teachers that are doing exceptional things,” Wright said.

According to the district, Brevard Public Schools has made “significant progress” in the state graduation rate rankings, now ranked 23rd in 2023 compared to 37th in 2022.

The district said of the 17 high schools in the district, all but one saw an increase in graduation rates in 2023 compared to the previous school year with 10 of the schools having a graduation rate of higher than 90% for 2023.

Wright said she would like to “steer away” from controversial books and focus on “making students avid readers.”

“I would love if our focus was more on our reading achievement levels, if we were focusing on teaching kids how to read as much as we’re focusing on these couple books that are causing such a distraction, I feel like it just takes us kind of off target,” Wright said.

Wright said another highlight is that one school in the district has been selected for the year-round pilot program for the upcoming school year.

In May 2023, DeSantis signed legislation, HB 891, for a year-round school pilot program. Five schools will participate in the program.

Upcoming ‘rally’ and more books pending review

A student-led “rally” is scheduled ahead of the next school board meeting on Tuesday. The “rally” will include a series of student speakers who are “fed up with Book Bans,” according to the event flyer.

The flyer said all attendees are “encouraged to give public comment during the school board meeting.”

“It’s time that Brevard’s rogue school board knew that students will hold them accountable for their actions” the group said.

According to the district’s website, 27 books are “pending” review.

During the Feb. 6 meeting, board members will vote on if they will remove the book A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas.

The book advisory committee previously met on Jan. 26 to discuss the book. The recommendation was three votes to remove the book and one vote to keep the book.

If the board votes as they have in the past honoring the committee’s recommendations, the book will likely stay off the shelves.

The book contains “graphic violence, explicit sexual nudity, obscene sexual activities, and mild profanity,” according to BookLooks. The website outlines the following graphic content:

The Moms for Liberty Brevard chapter shared the book on Facebook ahead of the meeting.

“Read below, would you want your minor child as young a 5th grade to be reading this in your school Please show up to the school board meeting to encourage them to uphold the book committees recommendation,” the post said.

In December 2023, the board discontinued a number of books after stopping parents from reading explicit passages due to a new law.

Wright encouraged parents to go through the committee’s review process and said so far they have honored the committee’s recommendations.

Florida’s Voice reached out to CNN for comment and will update this story if a response is received.