High-school and college students across the state of Florida plan to walk out of school on Friday to protest Governor DeSantis and Florida’s “authoritarian takeover of its public education system.”
Organized by a left-wing advocacy organization called Walkout 2 Learn, the event will feature a five-minute “banned history lesson” taught outside schools across the state.
“Right now, Florida’s people do not have control over their legislature—our governor does. So as we spend all of our time protesting, rallying, and walking out in an attempt to stop our legislature from abusing their power and us, Ron DeSantis is cackling because he knows it won’t work,” the organization states. “Walkout 2 Learn recognizes the harmful fascism that Floridians are experiencing every day and will provide immediate, short-term solutions to every participant so that they may protect themselves and their communities.”
“Black, queer, trans, and female-identifying people and their histories are the targets of government censorship,” the organization’s website states.
During the walkout, organizers will deliver a five-minute lecture on “a piece of history banned by Florida’s legislature.” Additionally, protesters will sign an active voter pledge and “assert their electoral power to their elected officials.” Florida students will be able to enroll in an online college-level African American history course and earn course credit.
The organization has prepared two scripts for the “Banned Curriculum Speeches,” one for an “impacted” perspective and another for an “advocate” perspective, which have nearly identical language.
“You’re going to hear them claim they are banning the AP African American Studies course due to LGBTQ themes within the curriculum. They cannot simply erase LGBTQ themes from history,” the script for both perspectives states. “History shows us that people like Desantis won’t stop with banning books and making laws against the inclusion of black, brown, or LGBTQ+ people. They want to stop us from learning empathy and respect for others that they themselves lack while increasing our fear of each other.”
In a message sent on the Walkout 2 Learn Slack, which is open to join and has nearly 600 members, an organizer wrote that the speeches were made in collaboration with the African American Policy Forum, of which Kimberlé Crenshaw serves as the Executive Director, and the Missouri Equity Education Partnership, which was founded in 2021 to “promote anti-racist and anti-bias approaches to education.”
“Their prejudice blinds them to our intersectionality. In fact the entire concept of intersectionality developed by African American professor, scholar, and writer Kimberle Crenshaw was one of the first things they wanted removed from the curriculum,” reads the script for the speeches. “And Desantis definitely doesn’t want you to know about the success of the Black Lives Matter Movement.”
Although the protest is in opposition to DeSantis, students in high school and college nationwide are encouraged to walkout because “the facism [sic] that’s devouring Florida will not be satisfied at the borders of our state.” Additional off-campus rallies are scheduled in Miami, Tallahassee, Orlando, Jacksonville, and Sarasota.
The organization lists “talking points to consider” for students creating social media posts. Suggestions include “Banning Drag Artists silences and erases the queer community,” a reference to the recent legislation that prohibits children from attending drag performances, and the so-called Don’t Say Gay Bills, which the organization claims “aggressively censor our classrooms —banning any books mentioning the LGBTQ+ community and prohibiting teachers from speaking on LGBTQ+ related topics.”