On Wednesday, Ben Crump made headlines yet again for the same reason he normally does. This time, during a press conference in Tallahassee, be appeared with members of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Democratic state lawmakers, and AP students who he says will serve as the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit that was teased on Tuesday night. The lawsuit was to be filed against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) over the rejection of an AP African-American Studies (APAAS) course. Both the announcement about the lawsuit and the subsequent press conference were reported by WFLA, a local NBC outlet in Tampa.
There's a serious flaw in the timing of the lawsuit, though. For it was also announced on Tuesday that the College Board was revising the course, after communication with the governor's office.
While there had been concerns with historical inaccuracies and content potentially in violation of state law, a letter from the Florida Department of Education (FDOE), as accessed and reported on by Guy, read in part that "should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion."
This is the letter sent by the DeSantis administration to the College Board, informing them that a proposed new African American Studies AP curriculum runs afoul of FL law & has been rejected in its current form. We wrote about this yesterday: https://t.co/2Qm5rjdYsz pic.twitter.com/GfiftuwWoD
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 20, 2023
Not only had the curriculum contained problematic content, it had been hidden from public view, despite having already been released as a pilot program in 60 schools.
Peruse those screen grabs & judge for yourself. I can understand concerns over how subjects such as “intersectionality and activism,” “black queer studies,” “postracial racism,” prison “abolition,” and the “reparations movement” (among others) may be presented to high schoolers.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 20, 2023
A statement from FDOE Communications Director Alex Lanfranconi about the College Board agreeing to revise its course, as mentioned in Townhall's reporting from Tuesday night, mentions in part that they "expect the removal of content on Critical Race Theory, Black Queer Studies, Intersectionality, and other topics that violate our laws."
WFLA's headline about the press conference notes that "Crump lawsuit against DeSantis over AP course on hold, pending course revisions," yet still details at length complaints against the governor laid out in the press conference. It appears that College Board's willingness to revise is not good enough.
Particularly fired up was Democratic House Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa. Her remarks were highlighted in the WFLA report, and are just dropping with politics:
Driskell spoke first, of those gathered, thanking those who had traveled from across Florida to show their support. She said that by rejecting the AP course, “Ron DeSantis has clearly demonstrated that he wants to dictate whose story does and does not belong. He wants to control what our kids can learn based on politics, not on sound policy. He repeatedly attacks the First Amendment rights of Floridians.”
Driskell said DeSantis now was “throwing his weight” against the AP course, and by doing so “undermining the rights of parents and students to make the best decisions for themselves.” She said they were in Tallahassee to tell the governor that Black history was American history and that he was on the wrong side of history.
“Now we’ve been told that this AP African American history course will be altered and resubmitted, and most likely they’ll make enough changes for the governor to approve it, but at what cost?” Driskell said. “And are we really ok with Ron DeSantis deciding what’s acceptable for America’s students across the country about Black history?”
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Driskell described the course as being developed by experts, with AP students being among the brightest in the country and able to handle “challenging topics.” She also said it wasn’t political to discuss history, and that by refusing to teach it accurately or sugar coat it would diminish or erase the truth.
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“We all know that united we stand and divided we fall, and while Ron DeSantis tries to divide us for his own political goals, to truly love our country means to bravely face our history, to know our own history, and to never be afraid to hold America to its highest ideals,” Driskell said.
The Democratic representative said DeSantis’ drawing attention to the course had happened while the course was already under revision and had done it for political reasons, in preparation to allegedly run for President of the United States in 2024.
"It's worth reminding, as Gov. DeSantis himself did when taking questions during a Monday announcement, that "in the state of Florida, our education standards not only don't prevent, but they require teaching black history--all the important things that's part of our core curriculum."
Education is about the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of ideology or the advancement of a political agenda. pic.twitter.com/Hete9aeHlF
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 23, 2023
Crump and his press conference, as well as the lawsuit, nevertheless found themselves in the news on Wednesday, especially when it comes to local Florida media outlets. Regardless of the progress any such lawsuit, then, it looks like Crump and his allies and defendants got the media attention then.
When it comes to any such threats of lawsuits, DeSantis' office doesn't appear worried in the slightest. "This threat is nothing more than a meritless publicity stunt," Lanfranconi said in a subsequent statement for Townhall.
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