Tallahassee Teachers’ “Just Be Cool” Campaign Gains International Traction

By Tom Flanigan | WFSU Program Director for News

A Tallahassee tee shirt and its slogan have now gone global. The founders of the “Just Be Cool” campaign say their shirts are now showing up all over the world.

Paco Fiallos teaches at Rickards High School and often hangs out with fellow teacher Reggie Grant, a professor at Tallahassee Community College. It seems they were concerned about the same disturbing trend.

“A lot of what we were discussing was the frustration that we feel as individuals and as educators seeing so much strife and conflict. And over the early summer we were seeing the protests over police violence and things like that. And we were frustrated at our seeming inability to make a difference in that,” Fiallos recalled.

Then, one day on the racquetball court, the two teachers wondered why more people couldn’t “Just Be Cool?” A slogan was born. And Reggie Grant said the discussion then turned to how to get it out there.

“Well let’s get this on a tee shirt,” he suggested. “We’ll go ahead and create a Kickstarter because both of us are teachers and we don’t have a lot of money. And we said that would be a way we could at least see it out there and the Kickstarter was very popular. One thing led to another and here we are!”

Taylor Lifka is a Texas high school teacher who was suspended for promoting tolerance in her online classes.

But this isn’t just a passive promotional exercise. Fiallos said a big goal was having the shirt recipients do fun things that could be part of the campaign.

“We find examples of people being cool; that’s our slogan, you know? And we highlight them on our Facebook and social media. And then we’re lucky enough to interview as many folks as we can for the production of our ‘Just Be Cool’ show. And the whole idea is just to spread that message as far and wide as we can.”

So far, Grant said that message has spread as far and wide as New York City, Texas, California, the U.K. and Australia.

“We’re selling them through the Etsy store we have, but then we’re also sending some to people we think are making a difference in our community, whether that’s locally, or we sent the tee shirts to a dancer in New York that was interviewed for our web show.”

Grant and Fiallos pick one deserving American teacher each month to receive a free shirt and a portion of shirt proceeds goes to the Florida Innocence Project. Fiallos said there are lots of ways to check out the latest news about the “Just Be Cool” campaign.

“It’s on Facebook, our web site is: justbecool.co. Through that, people can watch our show, listen to it via podcast or make a visit to our Etsy store.”

G. Wright Muir is an attorney in South Florida who was swimming at a local pool when a fellow swimmer called the cops on her and her son.

All of this, explained campaign co-founder Reggie Grant, to help defuse the anger and hatred that are so pervasive today.

“It’s a way of slipping in a message of inclusiveness and tolerance, because that’s really what we need and all the tribalism…it’s just gotten a little too much. And I’m hoping that we can puncture those rifts in the near future and maybe the message we’re trying to spread will help in that.”

All beginning with the simple phrase, “Just Be Cool.”