A school board member in Florida says she has received death threats after posting on social media about taking a group of elementary kids on a field trip to a beloved local gay bar and grill.
Broward County school board member Sarah Leonardi accompanied the children to Rosie’s Bar & Grill in Wilton Manors. The establishment is well-known in the area and attracts a wide cross-section of locals, including those with kids.
After the trip on Wednesday, Leonardi posted about it to her Twitter and Facebook.
“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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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! pic.twitter.com/A3rpMbyUJP
— School Board Member Sarah Leonardi (@bcpsleonardi) October 27, 2021
At a time when school board meetings have become a friction point over mask mandates and LGBTQ-inclusive lessons, the posting has prompted over 2,000 comments on Twitter and hundreds on Facebook.
The majority are from people outraged at the idea of a school arranging a field trip to an gay-friendly restaurant. Some picked up on the fact that the menu for adults offers such dishes as the ‘Rhoda Cowboy’ and ‘Ivana Hooker’ burgers. Of course, the kids were not shown that, having their own age-appropriate menu instead. The field trip has taken place for around the last ten years.
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Here are just a few examples of the tweets. It’s safe to say, most came from people with no connection to Wilton Manors.
This is just wrong on so many levels! Then telling the world that you did it! It is an indicator of just how much reform is needed in schools and school boards.
— Theresa Hauck (@DrTheresa123) October 28, 2021
I’m gay and think elementary school students going on a field trip to a gay bar is ridiculous. WTF
— J’s Game Corner 🎮 🌈 🏳️⚧️ (@just_games1984) October 28, 2021
The fact that you’ll joyfully promote a elementary school activity that has nothing to do with your core mission as an educator of this vulnerable age group, just confirms many parent’s fears of how broader cultural issues are being taken out of parents hands, w/o their consent.
— Sparktacular (@TheMainSpark) October 28, 2021
Please tell me they will all get fired for this. You just can’t trust many teachers or schools anymore thanks for continuing to prove our points
— Terra (@mamma7787) October 28, 2021
However, some of the responses have been supportive.
Just making sure you’ve never brought children to Applebee’s, TGIF Friday’s, Outback, or chili’s. Because me thinks the issue isn’t that there was a bar at the grille. pic.twitter.com/Xm6qvbVTu3
— Emma Collum (@collum_emma) October 28, 2021
👏 If I could have went on a field trip like this at that age, it would have been literally life changing. 🏳️🌈
From what I’ve gathered, the bar and grill isn’t a typical “bar” – they have special kid-friendly menus and coloring pages. No different than a field trip to Outback!
— Mikey Russo (@MikeyPanik) October 29, 2021
One of Rosie’s regular, Scott Travis, took to Facebook to express disgust at how the story was being reported by some of the more right-leaning media outlets.
“I took my mom and dad to Rosie’s Bar & Grill in Wilton Manors during their last trip here before my dad died. We had a great time,” he wrote. “I had my 50th birthday dinner with friends at Rosie’s last year. We also had a great time. The food is good, the service is awesome and the owners are nice people who give back to their community.
“Now the restaurant staff and School Board member Sarah Leonardi are receiving death threats and vile calls & messages because of a field trip where people claimed Wilton Manors Elementary children went to a “gay bar.” I’ve been to plenty of gay bars. Rosie’s Is a restaurant. You sit at tables and eat. Yes, adults can order alcohol, but the drink specials for the kids were milk and juice. I wish we were better than this.”
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7NewsMiami spoke to a former student who had previously been on the field trip when he was 9 years old.
“Basically, we went over there, we ate and had some fun. We all wore, like, matching shirts,” said Patrick White. His mom also commented, saying she had no problem with it: “They go there and eat. They just go have lunch. I think it just makes them feel like big kids.”
Rosie’s co-owner John Zieba said it’s an educational, fun visit, where the youngsters learn about ordering from a menu, paying the bill and tipping the server. They also do coloring-in exercises.
“They talk about what they’re eating and how to order and how they want their food — if they want something on the side,” said Zieba, “so it’s a great experience for them. It’s really such a cool experience to see the kids’ faces light up, and how excited they are when their food comes, or when they get the bill. You can just see that they’re just enjoying themselves.”
Zieba said he had been taken aback by the social media backlash and threats the venue has received. He has notified local police of his concerns.
Sarah Leonardi has also notified authorities after receiving death threats. She issued a statement saying, “As a school board member, I am committed to staying engaged with my community. I’m always proud to join classes for field trips and events, especially when schools are connecting with the vibrant small businesses in my district. Sadly, I’ve recently been attacked with bigoted comments and death threats. My friends and family have also been targeted.”
A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Investigation told 7NewsMiami it was following up on a complaint it had received about the visit. They said the state was sending an investigator “down there tomorrow to determine if there is a legally sufficient complaint.”
Mister P
There are better places for field trips than a bar and grill.
Vince
I went on many field trips as kid and not all of them had a education reason for it. This is more of a Restaurant then a bar and nearly all Restaurants serve alcohol.
Just like the Nazi’s showing up at School Board meetings this isn’t even coming from the Parents of Wilton Manners who don’t seem to have a problem with it. It’s been happening for 10 years so it’s practically a tradition.
For some some reason the right wing lunatics have lately taken a big interest in Schools districts as their battle ground.
nebskram
kids got to eat so either Rosies or Outback’s its just a restaurant the field trip was to learn how to act in a restaurant
marshal phillips
It all depends on the bar & grill. From reading about this place, it’s kid/family-friendly, a restaurant that serves alcohol. I think the outrage comes from its reputation as being gay-friendly. Bigotry!
barryaksarben
Unlike most of you I have been to this place. It is about as sexual as a Cracker barrel. I went on field trips in school and we always stopped at a restaurants and some of them did serve alcohol. This place is mainly a restaurant and only is a gay bar at night. It is a wholesome place and I think the gay people making comments about it not being appropriate have never been there and the trolls pretending to be gay to post outrage we all know are fake gays and terrible human beings
Jer
Fifty years ago a bar was dark, smoky, and disreputable. “Nice people” never went there.
Today a Bar and Grill can be appropriate for a girl scout outing. It serves food, has a children’s menu, and is just a nice place to eat.
In Albuquerque my favorite, O’Neill’s, isn’t specifically gay, but it’s gay-friendly. A couple holding hands would draw no attention, regardless of gender.
A school field trip? I’m not sure why, but if it’s been happening for ten years, pearl-clutching seems a bit over the top.
GayEGO
What is the big deal here? Kids need to eat like everyone else and Rosie’s is a good place to eat!
tjack47
Dumbass.
Dick Gozinia
I think there are many better places to take pre-teens for a field trip, but if their parents all signed permission slips for them to go to Rosie’s that should be all we need to know.
chris thau
When I was in the Cub Scouts in St. Louis back in the 1950’s, we went on a field trip to Anheuser Busch to see how beer was made. I was so bored. I live in Fort Lauderdale now and a lunch trip to Rosies for me at 9yrs old would have been a blast.
TedV
Rosie’s is one of my local faves. At lunchtime you can’t even tell it’s a gay bar. It’s full of business people having business lunches, retirees meeting friends, gays entertaining out-of-town straight relatives, even the red hat ladies having lunch before a matinee – all eating on an outdoor patio under festive paper lanterns. I’ve taken my own Trump-loving family there for Sunday brunch, and they loved it. The Repuglicans will do anything to try and create a culture war where none exists.
winemaker
Really, taking children to a bar, either a gay bar or straight bar and people think this is appropriate or a good idea? Wrong. I’m somewhat surprised surprised the bar didn’t evict them as children or anyone under 21 years of age aren’t allowed in bars anywhere here in the US to my knowledge. When i was in school, and there was a ‘field trip’, we needed to get our parents written permission and the venue was disclosed, is this the case here? This was totally inappropriate. On the other hand, if this was a restaurant that had a gay bar attached and they were going to the restaurant, fine but why would there be a ‘field trip’ to a restaurant? Doesn’t make sense.
TheAbsoluteTRUTH
You just answered your own statement rosies is a restaurant that happens to serve alcohol like every other place in the country it’s not a bar per se so there is your answer why they weren’t kicked out
Kangol2
It’s a restaurant, not a bar, Doris. There’s this search tool called Google (or Bing or DuckDuckGo etc.) if you’re unsure….
Also, the school took the students on the field trip to a local restaurant to learn about how to dine out. It’s actually an educational lesson, and for some of the kids. the first time they might be in a restaurant ordering food without their parents. So it makes sense and isn’t that hard to figure out.
TheAbsoluteTRUTH
I actually live in Wilton Manors and Rosie’s is 1/10th a bar it’s basically a restaurant that happens to be in a gayborhood it was previously a hamburger mary’s years ago. Practically a upscale diner if you will. The time those kids were there was before lunch so only staff were present. Honest to god this is much ado about nothing and frankly I’m a conservative on this site almost entirely and get called a troll by those regular asshats nontheless this is making a story where none exists and frankly since the elementary school is mere blocks away these kids see a lot more risky crap walking down 26 st, 6th ave or Wilton Dr like all the leftover tina queens walking like zombies around here. The only thing that’ll come out of this is the kids wont get an early lesson in business operations anymore which is sad.
CityguyUSA
Boy field trips have really lost something when your only option is to walk to a local bar.
Peter
The school board member had to know this field-trip food stop would be a controversial choice. Even though no harm was done — were the kids exposed to a drag show or topless leather daddies dancing together? — it was a poor choice. Don’t parents have to sign permission slips to allow their kids to go on a field trip? Seems to me there are a lot of questions needing answering.
dwick
If you’re not a parent of one of these kids, you have no say in what they let their kids do. Stop clutching your pearls and go sit down.