The father of a middle school student in Florida is suing the Palm Beach County school district because a teacher allegedly displayed LGBTQ+ Pride flags in the classroom.
Frank Deliu says his 12-year-old son came home from Emerald Cove Middle School in Wellington last month with information that disturbed the father. According to the boy, a teacher displayed an LGBTQ+ Pride flag in the classroom, and Deliu took offense, West Palm Beach area ABC affiliate WPBF reports.
Wellington is 15 miles west of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
The school moved Deliu’s son to an elective art class after Deliu complained, but he has yet to hear back about an investigation, he told the station. So he filed suit on October 12.
According to Deliu, since he filed his lawsuit, a second teacher has posted an LGBTQ+ Pride flag in a civics class, and he is amending the complaint to include that instance as well.
“It is not the school’s function to propagandize my child with individual teachers’ beliefs because that’s the danger,” he told WPBF.
“One teacher might be in favor of gay pride. The next one might be against gay pride. Do we just have random symbols of what each teacher feels like putting up in terms of indoctrinating our children on social or political, or religious issues? I don’t think we should,” he added.
Deliu’s request for a court injunction against the school to force officials to take down the flags is scheduled to be heard next week. Florida’s “don’t say gay” law allows for the lawsuit. A parent can sue a school district for any infraction they believe has been committed, such as the exposure of their kids to LGBTQ+ people under the Parental Rights in Education law.
In the lawsuit, which The Advocate has reviewed, Deliu claims to be a libertarian subscribing to a "live and let live" philosophy, though his actions contradict that claim.
The complaint also mentions right-wing buzzwords and grievances of "breaches to their human rights...due to Covid-19 lockdowns, mask, social distancing and vaccine mandates."
Deliu has a troubled history with the legal system.
Deliu was a lawyer in New Zealand but is not licensed to practice law in Florida. In 2017, he was fined $250,000 for ‘appalling’ misconduct by a New Zealand court, and his law license was suspended for 15 months.
The New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal handed down six complaints of professional misconduct, two of which were of unprofessional conduct and one of conduct unbecoming a lawyer, the New Zealand Heraldreports.
Among other things, Deliu was found to have made baseless accusations against a judge whom he accused of being racist.
