What do you get when you combine a political troll for governor, a piece of legislation that allows parents to sue public schools for something they don’t understand, and a group of frothed-up parents looking to make some quick bucks? You get Florida’s new Stop WOKE Act, that will open up the floodgates for frivolous lawsuits brought by parents of teachers who don’t understand or like topics in their child’s curriculum.
As Politico reports, DeSantis introduced the Stop WOKE Act at the Villages–perhaps the scene of the most election fraud cases in the last election–saying “Nobody wants this crap,” without noting if the “crap” he was referring to was the legislation passed by the Republican led state legislature or Critical Race Theory, which isn’t actually taught in elementary or high schools.
“This is an elite-driven phenomenon being driven by bureaucratic elites, elites in universities and elites in corporate America. And they’re trying to shove it down the throats of the American people. You’re not doing that in the state of Florida,” the Harvard and Yale alumnus said. Again, I note that CRT not taught in Florida elementary or high schools.
Under the legislation, any parent can sue a Florida school district if he or she feels a school in that district is teaching an aspect of Critical Race Theory, which I note a third time is not actually taught in elementary or high schools. CRT is taught in law schools to allow future lawyers how various races and ethnic groups experience the justice system in the US, given its history of institutional prejudice. People can sue the school district and recoup their legal fees; they are also protected from having countersuits brought against them or being forced to pay the legal fees of the schools they sue.
An astroturf group called “Moms for Liberty” have claimed that CRT is taught in schools, citing lessons of white people propagating slavery as a lesson rooted in CRT. This is a lie. For the fourth time: Critical Race Theory is not taught in elementary or high schools.
Note: story updated to reflect that the legislation is still in process, not a signed law.