JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Today, Governor DeSantis joined the State Board of Education Meeting to discuss the importance of maintaining the integrity of Florida’s academic standards by keeping Critical Race Theory out of the classroom. “The woke class wants to teach kids to hate each other, rather than teaching them how to read, but we will not let them bring nonsense ideology into Florida’s schools,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “As the Governor of Florida, I love this state, and I love my country. I find it unthinkable that there are other people in positions of leadership in the federal government who believe that we should teach kids to hate our country. We will not stand for it here in Florida. I’m proud that we are taking action today to ensure our state continues to have the greatest educational system in the nation.”During his remarks, Governor DeSantis cited several recent examples of Critical Race Theory nationally, and in Florida. Please find examples below: National examples of Critical Race Theory:
- A Philadelphia elementary school forced fifth-graders to celebrate “Black communism” and simulated a Black Power rally to “free Angela Davis” from prison. At this school, 87 percent of students will fail to achieve basic literacy by graduation. More here.
- Seattle Public Schools told teachers that the education system is guilty of “spirit murder” against black children and that white teachers must “bankrupt [their] privilege in acknowledgement of [their] thieved inheritance.” More here.
- San Diego Public Schools accused white teachers of being colonizers on stolen Native American land and told them “you are racist” and “you are upholding racist ideas, structures, and policies.” They recommended that the teachers undergo “antiracist therapy.” More here.
- An elementary school in Cupertino, California forced third-graders to deconstruct their racial identities, then rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.” More here.
- A middle school in Springfield, Missouri, forced teachers to locate themselves on an “oppression matrix,” claiming that white heterosexual Protestant males are inherently oppressors and must atone for their “covert white supremacy.” More here.
- Buffalo Public Schools taught students that “all white people” perpetuate systemic racism and forced kindergarteners to watch a video of dead black children warning them about “racist police and state-sanctioned violence” who might kill them at any time. More here.
- The Arizona Department of Education created an “equity” toolkit claiming that babies show the first signs of racism at three months old and that white children become ”strongly biased in favor of whiteness” by age five. More here.
Examples of attempts to teach Critical Race Theory in Florida:
- Palm Beach County School Board approved a new “Equity Definition” and “Equity Statement” on May 5, 2021, which reads in part: “The School District of Palm Beach County is committed to dismantling structures rooted in white advantage.” More here.
- In Sarasota County Public Schools, they showed a Black Lives Matter video that says in part “there is a built-in system of bias that makes life easier for white people.” Find the video here.
- In Jacksonville, a school planned to hold two school cultural meetings in which students would be separated based on race. More here.
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