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Credit: DisneyFlorida has become a hotspot of controversy in recent months, between
Now, it seems as though Florida has taken yet another step towards banning “woke” subjects or teaching materials. An elementary school in St. Petersburg, Florida, has pulled a Disney movie from its teaching curriculum after a parent filed a complaint. The film was a 1998 made-for-TV Disney biopic about Ruby Bridges, the first Black student to attend an all-white school in Louisiana, as she faced threats, mobs, and violence in her effort to receive an education. Each year during Black History Month, the film would be shown to the students to teach them about
1. A elementary school in Florida has banned a 1998 Disney film about civil rights hero Ruby Bridges, pending a "review."
I've obtained documents revealing exactly how this happened.
Follow along if interested.
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 28, 2023
Parents were sent a trailer of the film as well as a permission slip, allowing them to opt their child out of seeing the movie. However, one parent decided that the permission slip wasn’t enough, and filed a complaint with the school board, asking to ban the showing of the film to all students. In her complaint, she claims that the film promotes racism and the use of racist slurs, stating that there is nothing of value in the material for second graders to learn from. She requested that the film be entirely removed from the approved list of films or that parents be sent a detailed letter explaining the film, rather than just the trailer.
The parent also admitted she only watched the first 50 minutes of the film, and didn’t finish it. The film teaches about U.S. history, and what one little girl experienced in a not-so-distant past. Although racist language and slurs may be present in the film, it’s important to understand the full context and experience of the film’s message. With only one parent’s complaint, the school immediately banned the film from the approved teaching material list, and the film is now pending review. When reviewed, a committee can decide whether or not the movie will remain available for students, but there is no time limit in which the review must be made.
The removal of Ruby Bridges is just another move in an effort to remove “woke” material from schools. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has passed several confusing laws in the past couple of years, including a heavy book ban, prohibiting lessons that “force” guilt or responsibility onto students for systemic racism and sexism, and just recently tried to pass a bill that would prevent the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools throughout the state.
What do you think about this removal? Share your opinions in the comments below.
Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily representative of Inside the Magic.