New Florida School Board Member Calls For Corporal Punishment, Crackdown On Disabled & LGBT Students

The Naples Daily News reports:

Newly elected Collier County school board member Jerry Rutherford wants to bring corporal punishment back to district classrooms, he said the morning after Tuesday’s election. He added that disabled students’ behavior in particular is “out of control.”

Additionally, he said he’d like to see fewer “rights” for LGBTQ students — or the same extended to religious students who want to practice religion in school. Rutherford was endorsed by the Collier County Republican Executive Committee, which endorsed all three challengers to the school board. All of them won their races.

As a devout Christian, he’s fought to distribute Bibles in schools and to institute prayer at school board meetings. He has also protested Naples’s LGBTQ Pride festival, specifically speaking out against drag shows.

Read the full article. Rutherford unseated a longtime teacher and school administrator by 30 points.