Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler is expected to face a political reckoning on Tuesday when her fellow board members consider calling for her resignation amid an ongoing sex scandal that has rattled Florida’s conservative education movement.
The revelation that Ziegler, who helped write Desantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill participated in a three-way sexual encounter with another woman has cast a pall over a prominent Florida Republican who has become one of the state’s most influential promoters of traditional values and conservative principles in Florida schools.
According to state law, school board members can only be removed by voluntary resignation or by first being suspended by the governor and then voted out of office by the state Senate.
Democrat Tom Edwards, who is openly gay, said that he hasn’t spoken with his colleagues about the upcoming school board vote, but argued that it would be “hard for any board member” to oppose the resolution to remove Ziegler.