Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Challenges, Trump Admin Targets ‘Latinos In Action,’ and Polk Teacher Cleared After Birthday Song Deemed Racist

TOP STORIES - As hostages and prisoners are freed, difficult questions remain about the future of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. The Trump administration is now targeting the ‘Latinos In Action’ program in Polk County schools, and investigators wrap up the case involving a teacher’s monkey birthday song.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning, Chris, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
So just because both sides agreed to a ceasefire doesn't
mean there's not a difficult road ahead for Gaza. There
are still issues like will Hamas disarmed, who will govern Gaza,
and the question of Palestinian statehood.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Those are unresolved.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
And the Israelis have the release of twenty hostages, but
they are still waiting for the remains of those who
did not survive captivity. They got four yesterday, there's still
a couple of dozen who still need to be turned over.
So a lot of questions, and you know, President Trump
was waving around papers showing that he had signed these agreements,

(00:49):
but the exact details still unknown.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, and this could unravel quickly. Yesterday, I think was
a great historic day. To see those hostages back in
Israel was just a huge accomplishment. But if the bodies
aren't returned, or there's not a serious effort to find them,
if Hamas doesn't know where they are. I think you'll
see Israel become very frustrated very quickly, and then I

(01:16):
think there's gonna be a lot of pressure and we'll
see if they step up.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
They have to this point to get us here.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
But the countries in the region, like Egypt, like Turkey,
like Cutter and some others, are they going to step
up and create a Gaza and a governing body there
and a security setup that allows for the rebuilding of
that region? Right now, it seems like there's a power

(01:43):
vacuum there. You've got Hamas trying to consolidate as much
territory now that Israel has moved out of parts of
Gaza as they can. And I think another question is
what exactly do these members of Hamas do Do they
just stop being terrorists or do they Does Hamas become

(02:06):
Sama Hamas in reverse, like you know, a rebranding or
something along those lines. So you know that's the next
step and we'll see did you email them that that name? Yeah,
so you can get credit right right? Another issue though, Ryan,
what about who's going to rebuild?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Because the place is completely decimated. I mean, you've get
Palestinians returning to rubble in some cases some of those images.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
I mean it looks like the apocalypse.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, that's what it is.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, it's just it's all rubble.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
And I think a lot of that's going to be
on the Arab countries in the region too. You know,
they've they've talked a lot over the years about the
plight of the Palestinian people. Let's see if they put
their money where their mouth is now that it's time
to step up to the plate. So in a letter
of Polk County Public School Superintendent Frederick Hyde, the US
Department of Education has stated that their Office for Civil
Rights is deeply concerned that the district may be discriminating

(02:58):
based on race. Now, these concerns them from the school's
partnership with the group Latinos in Action that's a college
and career readiness program offered at least three Pole County
High schools in Davenport, Haynes City, and Kathleen, and it
states that Latino's in Action excludes students based on race
and engages in racial balancing. So one example is that

(03:21):
the organizations frequently ask questions page asks that is the
class only for Latino students The response was that eighty
percent of the class must be Latino, twenty percent can
be from other racial or ethnic backgrounds, and the school
district has responded to the Education Department saying that they
will work to ensure compliance with federal mandates.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
I didn't realize this, but Polkanic schools forty two percent
of their students Hispanic. Yeah, and that question on the
organization's Frequently Asked Questions page is gone. They put the
information out there, and I think this is really about
like this mandate that eighty percent of the students be Latino. Look,

(04:06):
I think if you had a latinos in action organization
or whatever a class or something like that, I don't
think you need to mandate eighty percent.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
I think you're probably just gonna get eighty percent. You're
gonna regardless, you know, to the class.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
I don't know a sudden think that you're gonna have,
you know, twenty percent Latino, thirty percent White Asians looking
to take the class.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Like, I don't think you need to mandate it.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
So I think they can have what they want without
running into the problem that they ran into.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
But I guess the question, though, is was this a
problem I mean does the education of arbandeed to get
involved with Well, I I don't agree.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
Yeah, you know, were there are parents of students who
wanted to be in and they were white, but.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
They yeah allowed. I don't think this is a huge deal.
I also don't think these organizations should be you know mandate.
I mean if they if you did, you know, white
students only eighty percent white student, twenty percent you know other.
I mean, that would be a huge story. So I
get that part of it. I agree with you. I
don't know that this was a giant book issue, and

(05:09):
I wonder, yeah, what is the makeup of the class,
like is it is there even I guarantee it's probably
like ninety five percent Latino and there was you know,
one white kid who has a crush on a girl
in that class.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
I mean they're saying that, you know, there's discrimination discrimination
against who.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, that's that.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
I would like to know that because as we've seen
with the book removal thing, a lot of times.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Kids aren't even taking out the books.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
So Paul County School's also in the news for completing
an investigation into a teacher's controversial birthday.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Song to a student.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
This is something so This prompted the kid's mom to
demand an apology for racist connotations and and drew widespread
backlash beyond Florida. So the incident happened when six year
old Legend Whittaker's class and teachers sang a song to
celebrate his birthday at Floral Avenue Elementary in bartow It

(06:03):
was supposed to be a celebration, but according to the mother,
it turned into an insult. The mother said that the
way they sang the song, they added in.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Some you know, extra lyrics. Yeah. Well, they said, happy
birthday to you. You live in the zoo. You look
like a monkey, and you smell like one too. We
all sing that as kids, right right.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
I actually asked Chachipt, what are some funny versions of
the happy Birthday song? That's the first one that came off.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
I remember that.

Speaker 4 (06:32):
However, you cannot sing that to a black six year
old child, right.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
And that's the problem because of the monkey connotation. And
then the parent sees it, and the next thing, you know,
you've got like a national you know incident.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, the teacher sent her the video. I guess the
teacher did.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
You had no idea that she was doing something wrong.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, and then it became a sensitive I remember singing
that kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
You don't remember the monkey part, but I do remember
you smell like one too, right, right right, an animal.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
If it was up to me, we would just do
away with the birthday song.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
There is nothing more uncomfortable than sitting there and having
people sing Happy birthday to you.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
I I like it, hate it, hated, hated it as
a guy. I don't like it now. So what would
you rather have? Nothing?

Speaker 3 (07:17):
No?

Speaker 2 (07:17):
I mean just hey, happy birthday, that's it. Uh? And
that and that you wouldn't have this problem.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Uh say, if you followed my idea, you went nothing,
you wouldn't have no birthday.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
No guests get lost, exactly all right. Chris Dreingman with
today's top stories. Chris, thanks so much. It was a
Ryan Gorman Show five to nine every weekday morning on
news radio u f L a