The Florida Education Association spent years telling parents they were focused on one thing – educating your children.
Now they're scrambling to explain why a speaker at their official press conference told Florida students that walking out of class was "required."
But Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas saw the video, and he's not letting them bury it.
The Press Conference They Now Want You to Forget
On February 5, the FEA held a Tallahassee press conference and handed the microphone to Zander Moricz – director of the Social Equity Through Education Alliance.
Moricz told Florida students that walking out of class to protest ICE was "rational," "reasonable," and "required."
He said it standing at the FEA's podium, with FEA members visible behind him.
Now FEA president Andrew Spar is running from that video like it was taken in another state.
"The Florida Education Association has never encouraged or organized, and would never encourage or organize, students to walk out or miss class," Spar said this week.
Commissioner Kamoutsas isn't buying it.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2023812592188485701?s=20
"The speaker gets up and talks about the protests taking place across the nation and says they are rational, that they are reasonable, and that they are required," Kamoutsas said. "It jarred parents across the country. Immediate backlash."
The Playbook Florida Conservatives Should Recognize
This isn't new.
In 2018, teachers unions across the country used the Parkland shooting to march students out of classrooms during the national school walkout campaign – organized by the Women's March political operation.
The tactic was identical: put an outside activist at the front of the room, let them say the provocative thing, and claim the union never endorsed it.
Moricz isn't even a union member, Spar says now.
But Moricz stood at the FEA's press conference, surrounded by FEA leaders – and not one person at that podium told him to stop.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2023452185204334922?s=20
Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka – who is carrying the accountability legislation Spar is fighting to kill – called it immediately: "I see two Lee County teacher union members standing there, nodding heads as student walkouts are encouraged."
The Real Reason This Union Wants You Looking Away
House Bill 995 and Senate Bill 1296 are moving through the Florida Legislature right now – bills that would require a majority of all workers in a bargaining unit, not just those who show up to vote, to support a union in order for it to stay certified.
Spar calls these bills "anti-worker" and "anti-freedom."
What they actually do is hold unions accountable to the people they claim to represent.
The FEA already watched over 120 public employee unions across Florida get decertified under the 2023 accountability law.
They know what's coming.
So when Moricz gave state officials a video of a speaker at an FEA press conference telling students that protesting ICE was "required," the union had a choice: own it or run.
They ran.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2023038161362780170?s=20
DeSantis Drew the Line. Spar Crossed It Anyway.
Governor DeSantis put it plainly when he retweeted Commissioner Kamoutsas: "Our kids are not pawns for political activism. Education, not indoctrination."
Kamoutsas sent every school superintendent in Florida a letter on February 3rd warning staff not to "encourage, organize, promote or facilitate student participation in protest activity."
Two days later, the FEA hosted a press conference where a speaker called that exact protest activity "required."
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2023879977683554429?s=20
Students at Brevard, Orange, Seminole, and Palm Beach County schools are now walking out of class – some despite warnings of suspension.
The union that claims it would never encourage a single walkout has not asked one student to go back to class.
Sources:
- Jacob Ogles, "'Let me be clear': Florida teachers union doesn't support student walkouts," Florida Politics, February 18, 2026.
- Danielle Prieur, "Florida's largest teachers union says it doesn't condone or support student walkouts," Central Florida Public Media, February 18, 2026.
- Forrest Saunders, "Florida teachers union pushes back after state accuses it of encouraging student walkouts," WFTS Tampa Bay, February 18, 2026.
- McKenna Schueler, "Florida bill targeting unions could be unconstitutional, staff analysis warns," Orlando Weekly, February 17, 2026.
- Florida Senate Staff Analysis, "PCS/SB 1296," Florida Senate, 2026.
