In Florida, the state grabbing education-related headlines for strengthening parental rights and regulating content at all levels, including colleges, parents have ousted a principal because their sixth-graders saw a photo of Michelangelo’s David sculpture.
Hope Carrasquilla of Tallahassee Classical School in Leon County handed in her resignation this week after she was given an ultimatum by the school board: resign or be fired. The chairman of the school board, Barney Bishop III, confirmed to the Washington Post that three parents filed complaints saying the statue and material surrounding it was “controversial” and not age-appropriate for their children. They also complained they had not been notified ahead of time
“She wasn’t let go because of the artistic nude pictures. We show it every year to our students,” Bishop said, referring to the school’s curriculum, which is designed to introduce students to the Western cultural tradition. “The problem with this particular issue was the lack of follow-through on the process” — the fact that parents weren’t notified in advance.
Florida’s grade schools have been the subject of fierce national debate. Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education law which, aside from strengthening parental rights, prevents instruction on sexuality and gender in early elementary grades. Many on the left have criticized the law, and most media outlets refuse to refer to it by its actual name, preferring to call it the “don’t say gay” law.
However, criticism also has emerged on the right about the scope of government intervention, the difficulty of drawing the line in marginal cases, and increased litigiousness among parents.
“To consider the potential breadth of the law, imagine that a young student asks a teacher why his or her classmate has two mothers or two fathers. If the teacher responds with a factual, value-neutral response, is he opening his school district to litigation?”commentator David French wrote in the Atlantic last year. “After all, answering classroom questions, even when not directly related to the curriculum, fits within the plain meaning of the term classroom instruction.”
According to Bishop, DeSantis’s educational agenda is something to applaud strongly. “Parental rights are supreme,” he told the Post.
DeSantis wants to expand the law from covering children up to the third grade to covering children and young adults through grade twelve. Broadening the law’s purview would also increase complex situations for teachers, administrators, parents, and students to adjudicate.
The Florida governor is also attempting to ensure that certain concepts about race, gender, and sexuality aren’t being taught in Florida colleges and universities. The Individual Freedom Act, commonly dubbed the “Stop-WOKE” law, has been criticized by groups concerned with free speech and academic freedom.
Last week, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request from the DeSantis administration and higher-education officials to block an injunction that has not allowed enforcement of the law.
“Professors must be able to discuss subjects like race and gender without hesitation or fear of state reprisal,” said the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, as quoted in Politico.
“Any law that limits the free exchange of ideas in university classrooms should lose in both the court of law and the court of public opinion.”