Florida AG Demands Firing of History Teacher After She Targeted Conservative 8th Grader, Tried to Get Him ‘Cancelled’

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has told Sarasota County Schools to fire Pine View history teacher Liz Ballard and revoke her educator certificate over reports that she harassed an eighth-grade boy over conservative views, used him as the class punching bag after his parents told her to stop, called him a “misogynist,” spread rumors around campus, and disparaged his father.

Pine View is the public magnet for gifted students in Osprey.

Uthmeier’s Office of Parental Rights wrote in a letter on Monday that Ballard “routinely discusses political topics” and that the student told her his parents “expressly forbid” him from those debates.

The letter states Ballard “harassed, disparaged and deliberately tried to ‘cancel’ an eighth-grade student for his conservative views.”

I sent a letter to Sarasota Schools after a Pine View teacher allegedly labeled an 8th grader a “misogynist” based on his political affiliation, ignored his parents’ wishes, and disparaged the child’s father.

If true, she should be fired and never teach in Florida again. pic.twitter.com/2yRnlA6k7i

— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) September 21, 2026

Despite the parents’ request, Ballard allegedly kept putting him up as “the conservative perspective in the classroom,” the letter says, and “pressured him to defend political positions on demand in front of his classmates.”

Uthmeier says that Ballard called the boy a misogynist, “spread this label around the school, and openly questioned the suitability and influence of the student’s father.”

He called the targeted harassment “the reputational destruction of a child” and said it would violate Florida law, board policy, and at least six principles of professional conduct.

Multiple parents had already opened HR files on her, Uthmeier wrote.

“If true, she should be fired and never teach in Florida again,” he posted.

The district has until Oct. 1 to tell him what it has done or will do.

Jason Means, president of the Sarasota Classified Teachers Association, is defending the leftist teacher in the media but has not confirmed whether the union will formally defend her during the investigation.

“She’s a great teacher at a great school; Pine View’s a great school,” Means told WFLA. “He might have, you know, overstepped his bounds a little bit. I mean, obviously it’s within the laws of the state of Florida, and I can see where he would say that he would have the right to send such a letter. I feel like he might have bigger fish to fry.”