DeSantis’ top education official agreed to attend a town hall but ended up avoiding it.
Instead, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. chose not to attend the event after initially agreeing to appear, an absence that became a focal point for critics of Florida’s standards that drew national attention over requiring educators to instruct students that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“Ron DeSantis knew that this was going on, Manny Diaz knew that this was going on,” Fedrick Ingram, secretary-treasurer with the American Federation of Teachers and a former state union leader, said at the event, going as far to call Diaz a “coward” for avoiding the meeting.
“They know how important this is to the Black community, they know that they have thrown an academic bomb in our community — and they knew that they should have been here to face you.”