In a press conference on Wednesday, three high school students from Florida issued a statement threatening to sue the Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida over a recently imposed ban on the introduction of a new Advanced Placement course on African American History.
The ban on the proposed AP on African American Studies is part of DeSantis’s “Stop WOKE Act” initiative introduced last year. In a press conference held earlier on Monday, the Republic Governor said that the new AP is “indoctrination, not education.”
“If he does not negotiate with the College Board to allow African American Studies to be taught in classrooms in the state of Florida, these three young people will be the lead plaintiff in a historic lawsuit,”
-Ben Crump, prominent civil right lawyers representing the students
The move has been defended by the Florida Department of Education. “As Governor DeSantis said, African American History is American History, and we will not allow any organization to use an academic course as a getaway for indoctrination and a political agenda,” the Director of Education Communication Alex Lanfranconi said in a statement.
DeSantis’ Stop Woke Act also attempts to ban the teaching of Critical Race theory, a theoretical paradigm that holds that racism is an entrenched element of American history, culture and judicial system. “Who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory. That’s the wrong side of the line for Florida standards. When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer history, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes,” DeSantis claimed.
The three students carried out the press conference along with prominent civil rights activist Ben Crump, who will be representing them. “Certainly, there are other advanced placement histories, such as AP European History, AP U.S History and AP World History, all predominantly generated towards white people,” Victoria McQueen, one of the students told the press.
Ben Crump added, “if he does not negotiate with the College Board to allow African American Studies to be taught in classrooms in the state of Florida, these three young people will be the lead plaintiff in a historic lawsuit,”
