I
n January, Florida’s osceola county school
district canceled a workshop for teachers about the
civil rights movement. The decision was made be-
cause administrators wanted to review the presenta-
tion “in light of the current conversations across our state
and in our community about critical race theory”—even
though, the Associated Press reported, the history profes-
sor who had been scheduled to lead the seminar said his
presentation was not about critical race theory at all.
This was months before Governor Ron DeSantis signed
the legislation known as the Stop WOKE Act on April 22.
But while backers of the law say it protects Floridians,
some critics see the cancellation in Osceola as a harbinger
for the whole of the Sunshine State. “I think that this bill
is going to intimidate every teacher in the state of Florida,
at every level,” says Jeremy Young, senior manager of free
expression and education at PEN
America, an organization that
advocates for free expression.
The law prohibits, among
other things, workplace or school
instruction that teaches that in-
dividuals are “inherently racist,
sexist, or oppressive, whether
consciously or unconsciously”—
language that could be read to
warn against discussions of sys-
temic racism. And while allow-
ing lessons on how discrimina-
tion robs individuals of their
freedom, it bars teaching that
some people should receive “ad-
verse treatment” in the name of
diversity—an apparent reference
to affirmative action. State repre-
sentative Bryan Avila, who spon-
sored the bill, called out Disney,
one of the state’s largest employ-
ers, during debate about the leg-
islation. He criticized the com-
pany’s diversity training, saying
it would run afoul of the law.
“No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not
equal or shamed because of their race,” DeSantis, a Re-
publican, said in a statement. “In Florida, we will not let
the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and work-
places. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimina-
tion in Florida.”
Some civil rights groups and free-speech advocates say
the law itself will run afoul of the Constitution, especially
as it affects not just K-12 schools but also public colleges
and universities, where there are stronger protections for
academic freedom. “Florida faculty have the constitu-
tional right to speak freely in the classroom,” said Adam
Steinbaugh, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual
Rights in Education, which advocates for free speech.
But the prospect of rolling the bill back doesn’t assuage
advocates’ fears about its effects in the meantime.
“This dangerous law is part of a nationwide trend to
whitewash history and chill free speech in classrooms and
workplaces,” Amy Turkel, interim executive director of
the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement. “It will infringe
on teachers’ and employers’ First Amendment rights and
chill their ability to use concepts like systemic racism and
gender discrimination to teach about and discuss impor-
tant American history.”if the trend is nationwide, Florida has taken a leader-
ship role. The Stop WOKE Act—which stands for Stop the
Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees—is just the latest ex-
ample of controversial legislation coming out of the state
to take aim at discussions of identity.
In March, Florida enacted a law, dubbed Don’t Say Gay
by critics, that bans public schools from teaching about
sexual orientation or gender
identity in kindergarten through
the third grade, and more gen-
erally prohibits teaching about
those topics “in a manner that
is not age- appropriate.” The law
could also allow parents to sue
school districts if they think chil-
dren were given instruction that
violated it. LGBTQ-rights advo-
cates have warned that it could
negatively affect queer students’
mental health.
Over the past year, DeSantis
has also spoken repeatedly
about “keeping critical race the-
ory out of the classroom.” (Criti-
cal race theory, which explores
how institutions perpetuate rac-
ism, is not generally used outside
graduate-level courses. But it
has become a catchall for many
conservatives; DeSantis calls it
“state-sanctioned racism.”) In
March, the governor signed a law
letting parents review curriculum materials and school
library books. “We’ve never seen anything like this, in
terms of concerted attacks on public education in a single
state,” Young says.
The Florida department of education recently rejected
54 of 132 submitted math textbooks from being used next
school year. The “problematic elements” included graphs
of data on racial prejudice by age and political leaning,
and a page that said students should “build proficiency
with social awareness as they practice with empathizing
with classmates” during a lesson on numbers.
Young says the rejection of the math textbooks is an
early sign of how the state could approach enforcement of
the Stop WOKE law moving forward.
“The Florida department of education, at a state level,”
he says, “is going to enforce this law to the absolute maxi-
mum that they can.” THE BRIEF OPENER
‘This bill isgoing tointimidateevery teacherin the state ofFlorida, atevery level.’
—JEREMY YOUNG,
PEN AMERICAThe Brief is reported by Eloise Barry, Madeleine Carlisle, Leslie Dickstein, Mariah Espada, Tara Law, Sanya Mansoor, Ciara Nugent, Billy Perrigo, Nik Popli, and Olivia B. Waxman