A Florida school recently made headlines for asking parents to sign off on their children’s attendance at events for Black History Month.
According to local outlet WPLG, iPrep Academy in Miami sent parents slips requiring parental permission on whether they wanted their children to participate in events celebrating the accomplishments of Black historical figures.
Although the state Department of Education denied the story in a statement to Business Insider, the Parents’ Bill of Rights, a law enacted last year in November by Florida officials, includes a policy that would protect any limitations enacted by schools under the guise of “promoting parental involvement.”
By giving parents the ability to opt their children out of the Black History Month lessons, officials say that Black history and learning itself are under attack.
“When parents become involved in making that decision, keeping some kids out, some kids in, you have unequal learning,” said Marvin Dunn, a professor at Florida International University, per WPLG.
The increased restrictions on the education system in Florida come amidst Gov. Ron DeSantis’ well-documented attacks on learning.
DeSantis has led many tirades against education. Last year, AP African American Studies classes were under attack.
DeSantis publicly went against the pilot version created by the College Board, calling for the exclusion of multiple topics. Topics include intersectionality, Black Lives Matter, Black queer studies as well as writers such as Angela Davis, Robin D.G. Kelley, Kimberlé Crenshaw and bell hooks.
DeSantis has also led a book ban that sparked a national controversy. After signing into effect the Parental Rights in Education Act, which allows the prohibition of instruction of gender and sexual orientation under House Bill 1069, many titles have been challenged in the state’s school system.
These books include “Africa (Cultural Atlas for Young People),” Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments” and Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”
Earlier this year, it was reported that dictionaries are also under attack now.
Per Axios, five dictionaries and eight encyclopedias have been removed for review alongside more than 1,600 other books in Northern Florida’s Escambia County School District.
“Florida’s new censorship landscape under laws like HB 1069 is robbing students of all kinds of important books and resources, such as those on major topics like the Holocaust, and shockingly, the Dictionary,” said the program director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, Kasey Meehan, per CBS. “This is a massive overextension of the language of the law, which mandates against ‘sexual conduct,’ and the school must return the titles immediately.”
