‘The point is intimidation’: Florida teachers besieged by draconian laws

Teachers say they’re feeling more disrespected, unappreciated and under attack than ever before by new laws championed by Governor Ron DeSantis

Adam Tritt, a high school English teacher in Palm Bay, Florida, was shocked when his school’s librarian – eager to comply with Florida’s new law restricting “inappropriate” books in schools – removed one-third of the books on his classroom shelves, including a collection of Emily Dickinson’s poetry that was not on her list of approved books.

Vivian Taylor, a seventh-grade teacher in Miami, says she was told to hardly discuss Emmett Till – the 14-year-old victim of one of the US’s most notorious lynchings – in her civics classes because under Florida’s year-old “stop woke” law, “people say you’re not supposed to talk about that because it will make children uncomfortable”.

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/13/florida-teachers-woke-law-ron-desantis