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Sarah Leonardi: Florida school board member takes 10-yr-olds to gay bar for field trip

Sarah Leonardi has been slammed online for taking the students to gay bar for their field trip

A Florida school board member has come under fire after she reportedly took children as young as ten on a field trip to a gay bar. Sarah Leonardi took the students of Wilton Manors Elementary School to Rosie's Bar & Grill as part of an annual field trip.

Leonardi shared about the trip on her Facebook as well as her Twitter account. Posting the trip's photographs, she wrote: “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!”

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The pictures from the trip showed kids sitting inside the bar as well as posing with the bar’s sign. Though it’s not clear if the students were given anything to eat and drink at the establishment, it sells things like, "Georgia Bleu," “Big Girl Burgers," "Rhoda Cowboy," "Ivana Hooker," "Hellena Bun," "Willy Cheesesteak” and "Young Ranch Hand”.

Who is Sarah Leonardi?

Leonardi’s website describes her as “a Broward County Public Schools teacher, community activist, and Broward resident who was elected to the Broward School Board in District 3.” It also states that she “ran to put resources back into the hands of teachers, improve school safety, and increase transparency throughout the district,” before adding, “in 2016 she was voted Teacher of the Year at Coconut Creek High School, has sponsored a variety of school clubs throughout her tenure in Broward County Public Schools, and currently serves as the Literary Fair Coordinator at Nova High School.”

But her recent field trip with the school students got her into controversy. A person tweeted, “when is appropriate to take kids to a bar and grill.  Seriously kids in a bar as a fieldtrip. Perhaps more traditional field trips would be educational and not absurd.” The second one wrote, “Yeah, I’m gay and I live in Miami. I go to Wilton Manors often. Just a few weeks ago I went to see Detox at Hamburger Mary’s. While growing up my mom had gay friends and I’ve been seeing drag shows since I was a kid but I don’t think these kinds of field trips are appropriate.” “These are the type of people @FBI should be targeting,” the third user suggested.

Many people slammed her on Facebook too. A critic wrote, “this is out of line. you should be fired and i hope you do! then you can be a bartender at Rosie's Bar & Grill!!” Another said, “Complete denigration of society. Nothing against gay people (none of my business what they do or who they love) but taking elementary school kids to a gay bar??? Wtf is wrong with you people?!” “I would be outraged if my elementary kids went to any bar on a school sponsored field trip like it’s a normal thing. Crazy crazy,” the third user added.