A Florida school board member received backlash this week after she took an elementary school class on a field trip to a gay bar with suggestive menu items.
Broward school board member Sarah Leonardi posted photos of the school trip on Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday which showed the masked children sitting inside the rainbow-themed bar.
“I was SO honored to be invited to chaperone Wilton Manors Elementary’s field trip to the incredible Rosie’s! The students and I had a fun walk over and learned a lot about our community!” Leonardi wrote, before thanking the bar “for hosting this special field trip every year” – an indication that it was not the first time such a trip took place.
I was SO honored to be invited to chaperone @WiltonManorsES’s field trip to the incredible Rosie’s! The students and I had a fun walk over and learned a lot about our community! A huge thank you to @RosiesBnG for hosting this special field trip every year! pic.twitter.com/A3rpMbyUJP
— School Board Member Sarah Leonardi (@bcpsleonardi) October 27, 2021
Leonardi’s post angered many people on social media, who questioned why children were being taken to an adult, alcohol-oriented venue for a school trip instead of a more appropriate location like a museum or the zoo.
“What was educational about this? Like really, what the hell did they actually do?” asked one man on Facebook, while another person quipped, “Next, they’ll be ordering tequila & vodka shooters with Jell-O shots on the side, for the kiddies. Dumb move on the Board Member and teacher.”
Others called for the board member to be fired and even arrested, protesting, “How can you be allowed to take children to a place like this?!”
The menu at Rosie’s Bar and Grill – which describes itself as a venue for those who are “LBGTQ+ or an ally” and was the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s ‘Best Gay Bar’ of 2015 – features such items as ‘Ivana Hooker’, ‘Miley Highclub’, ‘Rhoda Cowboy’, and ‘Young Ranch Hand’, however the children were provided with a more child-friendly menu during their trip.
Some members of the community attempted to defend the board member, arguing that the trip helps children gain life skills, such as how to order food and pay a bill.
“My family and I go to Rosie’s often and our child believes that the mac and cheese is magic,” one man said, calling on critics to “get a life.”
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