In recent years, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed several bills aimed to limit the teaching of race, sexuality and diversity to Florida students, including House Bill 1557 and HB 7, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” and “Stop WOKE Act” by critics, respectively. Now, the Florida Department of Education is taking similar measures to curtail additional curriculum taught in public schools and colleges, epitomizing the expanding scope of alleged censorship in education.

It is part of a nationwide fight by conservatives against diversity, equity and inclusion. Recently inaugurated President Donald Trump has made DEI an opponent of his administration, cutting all DEI policies and programs within the federal government. DeSantis is an open ally of Trump, likely leading to a similar alignment in their policies at the federal and state levels.
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Science Textbooks

The FLDOE, which is led by a committee appointed by DeSantis, continues to intentionally target subjects that remain politically controversial in education, such as climate change and its environmental implications. In June 2024, various textbook authors were notified that in order for their science books to remain a part of Florida’s educational system, “climate change” citations were to be removed, as reported in the Orlando Sentinel.

Cell biologist and science textbook co-author Ken Miller said that he was required to cut a segment in his textbook that demands governments to stop climate change, and he was told to provide proof that “human activity” was responsible for climate change. Further, Miller’s publisher said that a 90-page section on climate change was removed from a high school chemistry textbook.

Another science textbook author claimed, according to the report, that the FLDOE wanted him to remove additional information relating to climate change that was not specified in Florida’s educational standards.

“I definitely do believe that the banning of climate change-related content on textbooks in public schools is censorship,” Climate Change Club President Connie Lamaison said. “The fact that the state is choosing to not only ignore but also prevent young people from learning about this issue is really concerning. They are acting as if climate change [i]sn’t happening when it very much is.”

Following the publishing of the Orlando Sentinel report, an education department spokeswoman responded that Florida has “some of the most rigorous educational standards in the nation,” and “Florida works with publishers to ensure their product aligns with our standards and does not include any form of ideology or indoctrination.”

However, according to a survey of 333 MSD students, 73% believe that the FLDOE directing science textbook authors to remove climate change references from their books is not suppressing indoctrination, but rather an act of censorship.

“It’s common knowledge that our planet’s climate is constantly shifting, and trying to suppress that fact is not right whatsoever,” senior Vincent Ciullo said. “This censoring of important information is detrimental to children in schools around Florida, as they won’t receive the proper information about the world they live in. It is extremely important that younger generations are educated about this, as they are the individuals who can help the most to preserve our planet for years to come.”

DeSantis has long been a proponent against climate advocacy. In May 2024, he signed HB 1645, which deletes the phrase “climate change” from over 50 instances of state statutes involving the issue and facilitates the expansion of natural gas.

“It is now, more than ever, the time when we need to educate students about this problem, so that we can be aware and find ways to combat it. But we can’t do that if the government prevents climate change content from being included in our schools’ textbooks,” Lamaison said.

Additionally, DeSantis worked alongside the FLDOE in 2023 to distribute climate change-refuting videos created by conservative organization Prager University Foundation to Florida school teachers.

MSD teachers regard removing climate change content from school textbooks negatively.

“I think it is ridiculous that we are taking climate change out of textbooks and potentially out of curriculum. It’s not something that we can ignore; it’s a fact of life,” AP Environmental Science teacher Tammy Orilio said. “Even if we’re not teaching about it, it’s still happening, and I think we are harming ourselves even more by not educating students about it.”

Sex Education

Climate change is not the only subject the FLDOE is attempting to exclude from the scientific curriculum. It has been divulged by district officials and a comprehensive sexual health education advocate by the Orlando Sentinel that last year, Florida pressured school districts to reformat their sex education curriculum to focus on abstinence. This action mirrors steps some Republican-led legislatures have taken to control the information teenagers can learn about their bodies.

Specifically, the FLDOE told some districts that they could not teach teenagers about contraception, show images illustrating the anatomy of the human reproductive system or discuss topics relating to domestic violence to certain grades, prompting many school districts, including Broward County Public Schools, to reform their Reproductive Health and Disease Prevention curriculum to emphasize abstinence.

On the FLDOE website, the comprehensive health curriculum outlines the “benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of teenage pregnancy,” for grades 6-12. Florida law HB 1069 requires teachers to “teach abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as the expected standard for school-age students while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage.”

When implementing educational content in schools, Florida school districts must adhere to Florida Statutes Section 1003.57(1)(b)1. that requires them to submit educational plans to the state for their approval. BCPS’ sex education curriculum was sent to the state in October 2023 for their revision; Eagle Eye News covered the policy and the lack of high school sex education in the county during the 2022-2023 school year.

However, the Florida government provided no feedback to the curriculum until a year later. On Aug. 21, 2024, the state contacted Broward officials and expressed their dissatisfaction with some material incorporated in the lessons via phone call.

According to a memo of the call, “Pictures of external sexual/reproductive anatomy should not be included in any grade level… Contraceptives are not part of any health or science standard” but could be referenced as a “health resource,” and “pictures, activities or demonstrations that illustrate their use should not be included in instruction in any grade level.”

The FLDOE has not published official instructions detailing the new curriculum guidelines.

BCPS, which traditionally provides a comprehensive sex education curriculum, will now have to remove specific references to contraception in higher grades, fetal development in middle grades and different types of sex–such as vaginal, anal and oral sex–in all grades in accordance with the state’s recent instruction.

It is unclear how the change in sex education curriculum will impact students and staff at MSD, as it has not yet been revealed or enacted. The BCPS website reads that the 2024-2025 Reproductive Health and Disease Prevention curriculum is currently “under revision and will be posted upon approval.”

Eagle Eye News discovered last year that despite the new curriculum, BCPS lacked planning on where to implement it within high schools, as MSD’s Personal Fitness and Lifestyle Design course was the only place in which sex education was included in the curriculum. This meant that even if the new curriculum was approved, no one would be taught it outside of select students during their freshman year.

BCPS resumed teaching students sex-ed for all high school students through their study hall last year. It remains to be seen if the curriculum will be taught this year. Shifting sex education to focus on abstinence has fostered uncertainty among some MSD students, as research shows it does not prevent adolescents from engaging in sexually risky behaviors, but rather withholds them from medically accurate information that could reduce their chances of obtaining sexually transmitted diseases or having unwanted pregnancies.

“Making sex-education abstinence-focused is entirely hypocritical and will only harm students,” senior Melissa Azzarito said. “There are many kids whose parents do not teach about sexual activity or safety and rely on information provided by the school. The kids who want to participate in sexual activity are going to do so regardless of whether or not the schools are preaching abstinence, and doing so will only stop students from learning how to engage in those activities in a healthy manner.”

General Education Class

Though Florida’s attempts to censor education have primarily occurred at the K-12 level, they have also greatly affected public universities and colleges in the state. Most notably, Florida public colleges drastically altered general education classes to comply with 2024’s Senate Bill 266 in fall 2024.

General education courses, dubbed “gen eds,” are classes that a student attending a university must take in order to graduate. Because students select a major, or specific area of study, in college, students may lack well roundedness due to their focus on a narrow field. Gen eds seek to prevent this by requiring students to take a variety of classes.

The requirements are often school-specific, but generally include liberal arts courses like English and history, as well as basic science and math classes. However, in an attempt to ensure students are culturally educated, many universities and colleges also include a diversity or cultural education requirement.

DeSantis has been an open opponent of diversity, equity and inclusion education in both schools and the workplace. He advocated for and signed 2022’s Individual Freedom Act HB7, dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act,: that blocked workplace and educational discussions on race and gender, specifically targeting critical race theory. It was later legally challenged, and parts of the law were permanently blocked.

DeSantis’ open advocacy to end what he believes to be “woke” DEI education prompted the Florida Legislature to pass SB 266 in 2024.

SB 266 targeted many issues in higher education, but most relevant are clauses pertaining to gen eds. The law established a faculty committee, jointly appointed by the State Board of Education and chair of the Board of Governors, that will conduct regular reviews of statewide general education course options and provide recommendations for the removal, alignment or addition of gen eds.

It is worth noting that the State Board of Education is appointed by the governor, and 14 of the 17 members of the Board of Governors are appointed by the governor. Given DeSantis’ prominent stance on what should be included in education, the board may be influenced by his approval.

The most influential portion of the law, though, is one that regulates what may be included in gen ed courses.

“General education core courses may not distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, violates s. 1000.05 or is based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political and economic inequities,” SB 266 states.

Forty percent of MSD students “strongly believe” SB 266 to be censorship, and another 22% agree that the law is censorship.

The creation of the board and the prohibition of content led to many public universities making headlines by removing hundreds of general education offerings.

Florida State University removed over 400 general education courses, and the University of Florida removed about 700, according to Politico. Santa Fe College removed over 50 general education courses, Florida International University removed 22 and Florida Gulf Coast University removed 40, which is 25% of their general education offerings.

Some courses removed include Theories of African American Studies, What is a Good Life, the Evolution of Human Sexuality, Introduction to LGBTQ+ Studies and Anthropology of Race and Ethnicity.

Among the most targeted were sociology courses, which was likely politically motivated; Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz called sociology a field “hijacked by left-wing activists” and claimed it “no longer serves its intended purpose as a general knowledge course for students” on X, formerly known as Twitter, in December 2023.

Such a sharp decline in course offerings could decrease the attractiveness of attending a public Florida university. Florida public universities have long been highly regarded on the national scene and are a major pull for many out of-state.

However, in recent years, Florida universities have dropped in rankings. In 2023, the University of Florida fell out of the top 5 public universities or colleges on U.S. News rankings, and the Wall Street Journal dropped UF from Number 1 to Number 34 in public universities in 2024. It is possible that recent policies affecting higher education are impacting their rankings.

“I applied mostly out-of-state for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that I was concerned about what might happen to some public schools in Florida,” senior Isabel Lopez said. “Seeing what happened with New College [of Florida] and all the classes they took away, I didn’t want to risk it.”

Along with topics focusing on DEI, Florida also instructed colleges to review all college course materials with keywords relating to the Middle East to find “antisemitic material” or “anti-Israeli bias.” This has led to concern that content related to Israel’s bombing of Gaza may be erased.

Book Bans

The removal of some higher-education courses are not the FLDOE’s sole attempts to limit information available on diversity; Florida remains the only U.S. state to have banned over 4,500 individual books, many pertaining to topics of sexuality, racism and inequality. Florida’s law, HB 1069, has made this possible.

DeSantis passed HB 1069 in 2023, which, among several other laws, requires Florida public schools to allow parents and county residents to object to any instructional material integrated by the district board’s curriculum. Further, it demands that books or any material used for instruction which “depicts sexual content,” content “not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented” and content “inappropriate for the grade level and age group,” be prohibited and immediately withdrawn from school libraries and classrooms until the receipt of objection is resolved.

Although HB 1069 has not specified what material is deemed “inappropriate for the grade level,” according to a recent 700+ book ban list, it aligns closely to content that discusses sexuality, race and gender identity.

In November 2024, the FLDOE published a list of over 700 books discontinued from school districts as of the 2023-2024 school year.

Famous literary classics and biographies, such as Slaughterhouse Five, 1984 the Graphic Novel, The Handmaid’s Tale: Graphic Novel and Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, have been removed from various Florida school counties libraries and classrooms.

Works by renowned writers Maya Angelou, Flannery O’Connor and Richard Wright were also removed, along with novels that feature material on gender and sexuality, such as All Boys Aren’t Blue by George Johnson and Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.

“I’m not opposed to the banning of the two graphic novels [Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Novel and The Handmaid’s Tale: Graphic Novel],” AICE General Paper teacher Donna DeStefano said. “…There is an inaccuracy in the novel with Anne Frank portrays which contradicts the original book…in one of the scenes, it made Anne Frank seem sexually infatuated with another female character. I also own The Handmaid’s Tale [graphic novel] and the mature content of the sexual scenes is portrayed in picture…But literary classics like 1984 and Slaughterhouse 5, I have an issue with [banning them] because they are great valuable books that have you reflect on society and governmental control and how war impacts people. I think there are a lot of valuable connections the reader can make with those.”

The FLDOE has responded by claiming they are preventing students from accessing sexually explicit content.

“Once again, far left activists are pushing the book ban hoax on Floridians,” spokesperson Sydney Booker told The Guardian in 2024. “The better question is why do these activists continue to fight to expose children to sexually explicit materials?”

Five of the 700+ book bans derive from BCPS. Choke by Chuck Palanuik, Jack of Hearts and Other Parts by L.C. Rosen, Lucky by Alice Sebold, The Handmaid’s Tale: Graphic Novel by Margaret Atwood and Tricks by Ellen Hopkins were removed. These novels share similar themes of sex and sexual assault.

According to the survey, 62% of students believe that removing books because they contain sexually explicit material, LGBTQ+ characters or violence from schools is an act of censorship.

Some MSD students believe that schools cannot ban books containing controversial topics, as students need an open environment which allows them to further their understanding of novels and their contents.

“These [controversial] books are exposed to kids in a learning environment where they can explore different ideas and ask questions,” freshmen Sharon Ruiz said.

Conclusion

Whether the more recent measures hold in court remain to be seen. Parents of public school students sued the state of Florida over recent book ban measures, claiming a violation of the First Amendment. Their case was dismissed in January by a Trump-appointed judge.

Many MSD students disagree with the FLDOE’s actions, and whether or not the recent laws will face repercussions remain to be determined. As these measures are new, their effects on students’ education are unclear.

This story was originally published in the March 2025 Eagle Eye print edition.