Florida’s battle over how race is taught in schools

Florida is leading a national movement of Republicans to reshape how and what schoolchildren are taught about race. Gov. Ron DeSantis is leading the crackdown on what he calls “awakened” ideology. But teachers in the state told the BBC the changes had had a chilling effect, as many feared they could break the law by discussing the realities of US history.

WARNING: Contains graphic descriptions of racial abuse

It has been 58 years since LaVon Bracy became the first black student to graduate from Gainesville High School in Florida. Nevertheless, the visit is difficult for her.

“It brings back too many memories,” said Ms. Bracy, 74, over lunch at a diner near the school.

Memories of being routinely tormented by her white classmates, who spat on her, called her the N-word, and beat her so badly that she had to have stitches in the head — all because she was one of the first black students to do so the school had integrated in 1965.

For decades, Ms. Bracy has spent the month of February, Black History Month, traveling to schools to tell her story of perseverance in the face of a violent, racist backlash against school integration.

But this year everything was different.

Typically, Ms Bracy said she was invited to speak at a dozen schools across the state. This February she was only invited to two.

She blamed her waning invitations on recent legislation targeting how schools teach subjects like African-American history, race and racism. Laws that educators say will silence them and civil rights advocates say effectively amount to censorship.

“I never thought that 50 years later we would be in this fight that we are in today,” Ms. Bracy said.

Since July, multiple laws have gone into effect in Florida restricting what can be taught in classrooms for children ages 5 to 18.

Led by Gov. DeSantis, Republicans say these laws are necessary to protect children from inappropriate content and liberal indoctrination related to race and sexual orientation.

This week, in a speech at the start of the 2023 Florida legislature, Mr. DeSantis reiterated his commitment to “empowering parents,” saying, “Our schools must provide good education, not political indoctrination.”

Mr. DeSantis, hotly billed as the 2024 presidential nominee, said he wanted Florida to be the state “where the awakening goes to the dying.”

While the term “awakens” is often poorly defined, many conservative commentators use it to refer to a range of issues being pushed by left-wing activists, from transgender identification to claims that US institutions are systemically racist are.

Some parents, like Aly Legge, a Florida mother of five who identifies as multiracial, have praised the changes, which she says will protect their children from learning that they are “a victim forever.”

She said she believes teachers should teach history without making children feel guilty about being white or that they are “inherently racist.”

One statute, HB 1467, requires the state’s seal of approval for all textbooks used in public classrooms. Educators who break the law could be charged with a felony and face up to five years in prison.

Since its passage, over 170 books have been removed from shelves while awaiting review, including books like The Life of Rosa Parks.

Another law, the Stop WOKE Act, states that “the curriculum shall not be used to indoctrinate or persuade students” and seeks to ensure that no child experiences “guilt or fear” during instruction on subjects such as slavery in America. or feels “mental distress”.

In November, a Florida judge prevented enforcement of the stop-WOKE law at colleges and universities after a lawsuit alleging it violated the US Constitution. But for most public school students who are not yet in college, the law remains in effect.

Experts say the language in the law is vague, leaving teachers guessing which historical facts are now illegal.

“Indoctrination is not a legal term, it is a judgement. It’s in the eye of the beholder,” said Rebecca Bratspies, law professor in the School of Law at City University of New York.

Without clear guidelines on what teachers can and cannot say, Prof Bratspies said teachers would likely act out of fear.

“I don’t know what I could or could not teach in the classroom.”

The BBC reached out to dozens of teachers to ask them about the impact of the new laws. Of those who spoke, most did so only if they could remain anonymous.

Every educator who spoke to the BBC denied that “indoctrinating” talks about race and white supremacy were being held in their classrooms. Instead, they said, it was difficult to teach courses on slavery and the civil rights movement without confronting the ingrained racism at the heart of the American experiment.

The BBC made several requests to the Florida Department of Education to clarify what exactly constitutes “indoctrination,” or the infliction of “guilt and fear” on students, which the Stop WOKE Act specifically prohibits. At the time of publication, officials had not yet responded.

For many educators, the ambiguity has created a climate of insecurity and fear.

A Florida high school teacher told the BBC: “Will something I say that I think is completely harmless result in my being fired and essentially ruining my career?”

The focus has shifted from teaching to avoiding lawsuits, the teachers said.

A middle school teacher, who also requested anonymity, said he had to fight to teach a lesson to Jesse Owens, the African-American Olympic gold medalist and civil rights activist.

Ms Bracy said she too chose to self-censor for fear of retribution. During her speech to students at Gainesville High that year, she made no mention of receiving death threats before graduating or that the Ku Klux Klan had once burned a cross in her family’s yard.

“This is the first time I’ve had to think about how to tell my story, rather than just telling it,” Ms Bracy said. “I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”

There is also deep frustration at what the students are missing.

“What Gov. DeSantis has done and told us in so many words is that black history doesn’t matter,” a middle school teacher told the BBC.

Another reported that teachers at an Orange County high school were so demoralized that they often spent their lunch breaks debating whether to leave the state.

“Some of the best teachers in the state of Florida want to leave,” the teacher said.

Last month Florida lawmakers rejected the inclusion of a college-level course on African American history in high schools, with the Florida Department of Education describing elements of it as “awakened indoctrination masquerading as education.”

The course’s creator, a national corporation called the College Board, later changed portions of the curriculum, though it denied being influenced by Florida’s decision.

Many parents think the new laws make sense.

Parents have a right to know exactly what’s going on in their classrooms, said Ms Legge, the parent of five who supports the Stop WOKE Act.

Yvette Benarroch, 53, agreed. As a mother of two teenagers attending schools in Collier County, she said she felt parents were routinely blocked from knowing what was happening in their children’s classrooms. That changed under Governor DeSantis, she said.

That year, Ms. Benarroch joined over 100 other Florida volunteers to inspect textbooks from across the state.

“It should be about teaching [children] how to read, how to write and how to do math,” she said.

Don Falls, a 38-year-old veteran teacher in Manatee County, Fla., said the dispute over parental rights is being used as an excuse to allow more government scrutiny. In January, his school district ordered all teachers to cover their classroom bookshelves until each book was individually reviewed under the law.

“Much more insidious things are going on here,” said Mr. Falls.

Much has changed at Gainesville High in the nearly 60 years since Ms. Bracy integrated the school.

Remarkably, the student body today is predominantly black, a far cry from the days when Ms. Bracy was one of only three black students in the entire school.

On a rainy Friday in February, Ms. Bracy spoke candidly to students at her alma mater, Gainesville High, about the emotional and physical costs of being a pioneer.

The lecture hall, which had just been filled with excited shouts and laughter from the students, gradually grew still and still.

“I endured this year because I knew there would be those who would come behind me,” she said, reflecting on the decades that have passed since then. “I’ve gotten to the point where I’m still ready to fight.”

After her speech, several students approached her to say thank you, some in tears.

“He was just crying,” Ms. Bracy said, describing one of the students. “I said, ‘It’s fine, I’m fine, don’t cry,'” adding that those moments of empathy and connection are why she will continue to share her story with anyone who will listen – despite the risk of running afoul of the law.

“It’s not pretty,” she told them. “But a person who doesn’t know their story is doomed to repeat it.”