This Podcast Could Be Banned in Florida Schools
September 8, 2022
It’s September and we’re back! Did you miss us? We missed you. So happy to be back and bringing you a very timely episode for the back to school season.
In August, the ACLU along with partner organizations, filed a challenge to Florida's Stop W.O.K.E. Act, a censorship law which restricts educators and students from learning and talking about issues related to race and gender in the classroom. This isn’t the first law we’ve seen like this: education gag orders have been introduced in 40 states, and nearly 20 states across the country have passed these kinds of laws.
Florida’s law, we argue, violates the First and 14th Amendments by imposing viewpoint-based restrictions on educators and students that are both vague and discriminatory. Additionally, the laws violates the Equal Protection Clause because it was enacted with the intent to discriminate against Black educators and students. Today we’re digging in and speaking with two of our clients who are impacted by this law as well as one of the ACLU’s lead attorneys on the case.
In this episode
Leah Watson
Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU's Racial Justice Program
she/her
Kendall Ciesemier
Former Host of At Liberty and Senior Executive Producer of Multimedia, American Civil Liberties Union
she/her/hers
Dr. Dana Thompson Dorsey
Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of South Florida
(she/her)
Johana Dauphin
International Affairs Major, Florida State University
(she/her)