Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a controversial bill Friday that would restrict the way race-related issues can be taught in schools and in workplace training. But it drew an immediate challenge in court.
The measure (HB 7) was approved in party-line votes by the House and Senate during the legislative session that ended March 14.
Under the bill, various race-related concepts would constitute discrimination if taught in classrooms or while training employees. Part of the bill dealing with schools would label instruction discriminatory if it led people to believe that they bear “responsibility for, or should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of, actions committed in the past” by people of the same race or sex.
Similarly, the measure targets workplace training that would “compel” people to believe that their “moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.”
A lawsuit filed in federal court seeks to block the new law and a rule approved last year by the State Board of Education that targeted instruction on critical race theory.
“This case arises from the Florida Legislature and Executive Branch’s efforts to suppress speech in Florida’s schools and workplaces by passing laws that forbid Florida’s teachers and employers from endorsing concepts about race and sex with which Florida’s conservative politicians disagree,” said the lawsuit, filed by attorneys with the Jacksonville firm of Sheppard, White, Kachergus, DeMaggio & Wilkison P.A.
“These laws are unconstitutional viewpoint-based restrictions on speech that regulate the speech of Florida’s teachers and business owners in violation of their First Amendment Rights.”
The bill was a top priority of DeSantis, who billed it as a way to prevent critical race theory in classrooms and businesses. The governor dubbed it the “Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act,” or Stop WOKE Act.
“No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race,” DeSantis said in a statement Friday afternoon. “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.”
The measure sparked lengthy debate in the Legislature about whether it sought to protect “individual freedom” as its formal title suggests or is aimed at obscuring the uglier parts of American history.
DeSantis said the bill allows discussion of topics such as sexism, slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation, and racial discrimination — but "in an age-appropriate manner, and in such a way that does not indoctrinate or persuade students to a certain point of view that is inconsistent with the principles of individual freedom."
Black Democratic senators made impassioned arguments against the plan, focusing on the part of the bill that deals with schools.
“The bill is all about trying to blot out history. It’s also about fear. Not fear of someone feeling guilt, but fear of our young people coming together to tear down walls of division that some people want to keep up,” said Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville.
Democrats argued that the bill is part of an attempt by Republicans throughout the country to rewrite the nation’s past.
“This is a continuation of a national agenda to whitewash history, all because we don’t want white children to feel uncomfortable?” Sen. Shevrin Jones, a West Park Democrat who is Black, said.
The measure doesn’t specifically mention critical race theory, which is based on the premise that racism is embedded in American society and institutions. But the bill came after DeSantis last year announced a legislative proposal that he billed as an effort to weed the theory out of classrooms and businesses.
Democrats also maintained that the bill would leave businesses vulnerable to lawsuits and dissuade young professionals from coming to Florida to work.
“This is not the kind of atmosphere that will increase our economic development or bring us forward to make us one of the top business-friendly states in the nation. For that reason, for the reason of humanity and, again, creating kind, tolerant, loving adults, this bill is all wrong,” said Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton.
Information from the News Service of Florida was used in this report.