Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Florida Teacher Who Seeks To Ban 150 Books Called Out For Her Openly Racist And Homophobic Beliefs

Facebook screenshot of Vicki Baggett
Vicki Baggett/Facebook

Former students are speaking out about Northview High School English teacher Vicki Baggett's openly bigoted comments and behavior as she pushes to 'protect minors' from library books.

A Florida teacher who seeks to ban nearly 150 books on the grounds it is her "responsibility to protect minors" received pushback from former students who say she has a history of making openly bigoted comments and exhibiting equally problematic behavior.

In an interview with Popular Information, Baggett—who teaches at Northview High School in Century, Florida—said she is deadset on banning books like When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball—about how the Olympic sprinter battled racial discrimination in different kinds of sports—because she has concerns the book could make White students "feel uncomfortable."


Baggett's urge to ban the book to protect White children from discomfort is only the tip of the iceberg.

According to former students of hers, Baggett openly promoted her racist and homophobic beliefs in class.

Peggy Sunday, who graduated from Northview High School in 2021, told Popular Information Baggett announced she opposes interracial marriage during a 10th grade English class. Sunday said Baggett "said in the Bible somewhere it says that it is a sin for races to mix together and that Whites are meant to be with Whites and Blacks are meant to be with Blacks."

Stone Pressley, who was in the same class as Sunday, recalled the incident and remembered Baggett said she opposes "race mixing" because "she wanted to preserve cultures" and "didn't want everyone to turn the same color eventually." Two more students also confirmed the incident took place.

Sunday recalled Baggett specifcally targeting Black students, even asking two if they "knew how to swim" because "most Black people don't know how to swim." One of the Black students targeted by Baggett confirmed this happened and their statement was backed up by two other students.

Baggett—who once posted an image of the Confederate Flag to her Facebook page because "everyone in my clan fought in the Civil War"—told Popular Information she is a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC).

UDC is a hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers best known for hastily placing cheaply made Confederate monuments throughout the South during the Civil Rights movement to remind people of color of "their place" in Southern society.

The removal of those monuments in recent years has been a hot topic.

Former students also said Baggett regularly expressed homophobic beliefs in class.

At one point she told a student whose sister had a girlfriend she was "faking being a lesbian for attention."

Baggett made homophobia one of the cornerstones of her crusade to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes, notably And Tango Makes Three, which tells the story of two male penguins, Roy and Silo, who create a family together.

Baggett said the book uses penguins to "promote the LGBTQ agenda."

Image of the children's book "And Tango Makes Three."Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Baggett told Popular Information she opposes including And Tango Makes Three in school libraries because second graders might read the book and determine "these are two people of the same sex that love each other."

Baggett's views on gender roles are also outdated.

She once told parents in a letter that "men are the protectors and the women are the nurturers" and that is why "women have the children and the men go to work." Although a parent complained, Northview High School did not take action.

Baggett's behavior intimidated students who said they were "scared" to report her to school administration because Northview High School is small and Baggett has taught there for 30 years.

Baggett's conduct attracted significant attention online after the Popular Information article—by journalist Judd Legum—made her behavior known to the wider public.

Many condemned her actions and called for her dismissal as a result.


A pushback against literature with anything counter to a White, Christian, heteronormative, patriarchal worldview has dominated the culture wars as of late, becoming a flashpoint among the far-right amid a campaign by Republicans to energize conservative voters, particularly in school board elections.

In recent months, the Republican Party latched onto an ongoing "groomer" hysteria accusing LGBTQ+ people of targeting children to "make" them LGBTQ+.

This resulted in revived 1970s rhetoric used by people like Anita Bryant against the alleged "LGBTQ+ indoctrination" of children and prompted at least one Republican to suggest parents and teachers who support LGBTQ+ children should be "executed for treason."

Multiple teachers and librarians around the country complained about the hostile political climate making it difficult for them to have conversations about racial equity and LGBTQ+ issues, including one librarian who went viral after she called out conservatives for yanking library funding and for calling her and her staff "pedophiles" for including LGBTQ+ books in the library's collection.

More from Trending

Gavin Newsom; Donald Trump
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Newsom Just Masterfully Trolled Trump With Hilarious Fake Ad For 'Newsom University'—And We Can't

California Governor Gavin Newsom mocked President Donald Trump with his latest parody of Trump's tweets, this time spoofing Trump University, one of the president's most notorious scams.

Trump University shut down after a $40 million lawsuit from New York’s Attorney General and is considered one of Trump's most high-profile and damning business failures.

Keep ReadingShow less
The sihouette of a man in front of a starlit sky
silhouette photography of person
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

People Divulge Scientific Facts They Wish They Never Learned

Even if it might not have been our favorite subject in school, we can't. help but be fascinated by science.

As there are literally endless things to learn about the world we live in, and beyond.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @lenna.v1234's TikTok video
@lenna.v1234/TikTok

Guy Caught DMing Women While At Dinner With His Wife—And Then Her Daughter Found The Viral Video

There's nothing quite like showing that "love lasts forever" than catching an older married man messaging other women while his wife sits, unaware, across a small restaurant table from him.

While out to dinner with one of her friends, TikToker @lenna.v1234 caught a man in the act of using the messaging app WingTalks to speak to multiple other women while dining out with his wife. He even told one other woman that he loved her and called her "baby."

Keep ReadingShow less
John Kennedy
C-SPAN

MAGA Senator Claims You Could Turn Into 'Alien' From Eating 'Radioactive' Shrimp In Bonkers Rant

Louisiana MAGA Republican Senator John Kennedy brought visual aids to a presentation on the floor of the United States Senate on Wednesday. Standing next to a creature called a "chestburster" from the 1979 film Alien, Kennedy claimed people would end up looking like the juvenile xenomorph if they ate imported shrimp from Walmart.

The video was so bizarre that people thought it must be a deepfake making fun of the MAGA minion Senator. But all suspicions of trolling were dispelled when, proud of his performance, Kennedy posted it himself on X and YouTube—where he shared his full five and a half minute diatribe.

Keep ReadingShow less
Happy woman holding up a positive pregnancy test
MementoJpeg/Getty Images

TikToker Sparks Debate After Revealing ChatGPT Was The First 'Person' She Told About Her Pregnancy

We've all heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child, but with villages being harder to access and more complicated than ever in 2025, some future parents are getting very creative about what they consider to be their "village."

TikToker @curious__t made waves on the platform when she shared a simple carousel of two photos.

Keep ReadingShow less