A retired teacher was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison for threatening in obscenity-filled voicemails to harm a federal judge in Florida who had rejected a challenge to the state’s so-ca
lled “don’t say gay” law restricting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity. U.S. District Judge William Jung in Tampa sentenced Stephen Thorn, 66, to the maximum sentence possible after he pleaded guilty in May to a single threat charge. The sentence was twice as long as prosecutors had sought. Thorn’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Berger in that ruling dismissed a lawsuit by LGBTQ students, their families and civil rights groups seeking to stop the Florida measure from being implemented after Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed it into law earlier that year. The Florida measure, formally called the Parental Rights in Education Act, bars classroom instruction in public schools on sexual orientation or gender identity for children in kindergarten through third grade, or from about ages 5-9.
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