Florida Students Walk Out of Classrooms to Protest Education Restrictions and Censorship
On Friday, April 21, hundreds of high school and college students throughout Florida are walking out of classrooms to protest Governor Ron DeSantis and his education policies.
The 24-hour action, dubbed Walk Out 2 Learn, calls for students to walk out of their schools, register to vote (or check their voter registration status), take part in a brief lesson on banned policies, and enroll in a virtual, college-level course in African American history. Rallies and speeches are also scheduled across the Sunshine State, from Jacksonville and Orlando to Sarasota and Miami.
Youth activists mobilized through The Social Equity through Education (SEE) Alliance say the movement is in defiance to proposed and passed state legislation that restricts lessons and discussions about race and LGBTQ+ history. “Black, queer, trans, and female-identifying people and their histories are the targets of government censorship,” Walk Out 2 Learn’s website reads. “Our governor has forgotten that students have rights. We’re here to remind him.”
Friday’s movement is a crucial step in building and achieving short-term goals that will hopefully lead to long-term results, Walk Out 2 Learn says.
“While we may not be able to stop bills from becoming law today, we can build collective power, share resources, insulate our communities, and continue to resist so that we can work to reclaim our state in the coming years,” SEE Executive Director and Founder Zander Moricz explains.
Just this week, on April 19, Gov. DeSantis expanded Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans all teachings and discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity up to third grade. This new expansion prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity through high school, “unless such instruction is either expressly required by state academic standards... or is part of a reproductive health course or health lesson for which a student’s parent has the option to have his or her student not attend,” ABC News reports.
In July 2022, Florida’s Individual Freedom Act, also known as the “Stop WOKE Act” (WOKE standing for Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees), went into effect. The law restricts talks of race, inequality, and gender in schools and workplaces, but portions of the legislation are blocked in public colleges and universities, according to NBC News.
DeSantis has also banned an Advanced Placement course in African American studies, according to CNN, citing that it’s a “political agenda” and on the “wrong side of the line for Florida standards.” This measure follows the state’s 2021 banning of critical race theory and any material related to the 1619 project, an initiative led by The New York Times and Nikole Hannah-Jones on the subject of slavery, the outlet reports.
To read more about Walk Out 2 Learn’s mission, check out their website here.
You Might Also Like
