The X post by Florida’s education commissioner caught Hillsborough County school district officials off guard.
It showed the cover of a book, “Trans Mission,” which commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said was filled with unspecified inappropriate content. And it came with a warning: Get rid of the book, written by a transgender YouTube personality, or face the state’s wrath.
District leaders said they learned about the commissioner’s concerns only because the superintendent was tagged. And that disturbed some of them.
“It’s disappointing that, at this point, leadership is communicating with us through Twitter instead of a phone call or an email or something professional, where we have the opportunity to have a collaborative relationship about what’s best,” said Hillsborough school board chairperson Jessica Vaughn, whose district already was facingaccusations that it had pornographic materials on its shelves.
She’s not alone in questioning the commissioner’s aggressive approach during his first month in office.
The former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis has gained attention through his use of threats, warnings and public shaming to demonize school board members, district officials and union leaders whom he accuses of not adhering to the DeSantis agenda. At the same time, he has heaped praise on groups and individuals who share his views.
His style came through on his first day, when Kamoutsas sent letters to superintendents and principals telling them not to violate the rights of parents or teachers. If the department gets wind of violations, he advised, “I will be knocking on your door.”
He suggested the state might pursuecriminal penalties against officials who do not comply, linking forces with Attorney General James Uthmeier.
Since then, Kamoutsas has:
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Warned teacher union leaders against using “delay tactics” in getting state-funded raises into teacher paychecks, though no union had taken steps to do so.
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Told districts to stop using the Beanstack online library catalog, saying it pushed ideology, citing an incident that Beanstack said did not involve any school accounts. The department is creating its own centralized system promoted by a lobbyist with ties to DeSantis.
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Accused the Alachua County school board of violating parents’ First Amendment rights at a board meeting. A review of the meeting shows all residents were permitted to speak and no one was removed from the chamber, althoughit was considered.
Each step of the way, Kamoutsas — previously an administration insider with no social media profile — posted his thoughts and actions on the X account he established in May.
“It’s a new way of doing business,” observed Andrea Messina, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association.
A Department of Education spokesperson said Kamoutsas was not available to comment.
It’s anapproach used by others in the governor’s office, including DeSantis himself. The officials gain attention by making broad pronouncements of wrongdoing, invoking incendiary adjectives to describe murky behavior, and threatening retaliation unless the targets change their ways.
Newly appointed Chief Financial OfficerBlaise Ingoglia, for example, announced on social media that he had heard local government officials “may be” altering data systems to hide information from state efficiency auditors. “Let me be clear: I have no problem issuing subpoenas and putting people under oath to catch you,” Ingoglia said, offering no specific examples.
Past education commissioners did not shy away from taking districts to task for their actions. They more often relied on formal communication and official actions than governing through tweets and threats, though.
State Board of Education chairperson Ryan Petty praised Kamoutsas, who was known as an enforcer in the Governor’s Office before his appointment, for setting the right tone for Florida education.
“His accomplishments in just the first few weeks have been impressive, and his leadership is already making meaningful impact across our state,” he said via email. “It’s evident from his most recent letter, he is focused on academic excellence over indoctrination.”
Jude Bruno, president-elect of Florida PTA, suggested there might be a generational divide in viewing the commissioner’s reliance on social media to communicate.
“This is what we were brought up in. We should not take offense in that,” Bruno said. “We need to get into the discussion. This is a moment for us to be adaptive.”
He expressed greater concern that Kamoutsas has focused on issues that divide rather than topics that matter more families, such as adequate funding and free speech for all.
Many school district officials are more on edge. Several contacted by the Tampa Bay Times declined to comment, saying they did not want to be the next target.
Alachua County school board vice chairperson Tina Certain, who ran the meeting that Kamoutsas vilified, said the overarching silence wouldn’t stop her from calling out what she deemed “fear, intimidation and chilling” from the commissioner’s office.
Certain said the allegations in the commissioner’s letter, which he sent to the district and shared on X, did not reflect what really happened.
Kamoutsas wrote that the board directed officers to remove a speaker because of his conservative views, and no one did anything to stop it. Because the board “publicly failed to ensure free expression of all viewpoints during public comment,” he stated that he found probable cause of a state law violation.
Certain acknowledged asking deputies to escort a speaker from the room after he completed his comments, saying he antagonized others in the audience as he returned to his seat. She quickly reversed her request on the board lawyer’s advice.
“I’m not sure if this letter was mistaken or if he’s just outright lying,” Certain said. “I think he is trying to chill the speech … of anyone who does not agree with him and the current administration.”
She said she understood why no one wants to fight the administration, which has not hesitated to oust elected officials in the past.
“It will hurt your district long after you’re gone,” Certain said. “But if you bow down to the bully, is anybody safe?”
In the case of the Hillsborough library book, Superintendent Van Ayres responded to the commissioner’s social media post with his own, writing that he had made the title available only with parental consent while the district reviews the content.
Soon after, Uthmeier trashed that decision on X, as did the state board’s Petty, who questioned whether Ayres needed help finding “the moral clarity that appears to elude you.” A day later, Ayres agreed to remove the book completely, and recommend the removal of two others, without commenting on the content.
Hillsborough board chairperson Vaughn said she saw the logic of ending a likely no-win fight when so many more important issues must be handled. Still, she worried the quick capitulation would make it easier for the administration to govern through threats without providing justification or considering local views.
“Hillsborough has been one of the biggest holdouts” to parts of the DeSantis agenda, Vaughn said. “Everyone will be scared when they break the most defiant child. Then everyone will fall in line.”
Kamoutsas all but telegraphed that message in his Friday X post.
“We will continue to ensure that the material in Florida schools focuses on enhancing academic achievement, not gender ideology,” he wrote. “@VanAyresHCPS was wise to pull these books. All school districts remain on notice and should govern themselves accordingly.”
Staff writer Divya Kumar contributed to this report.
