Michael Butler, a history professor at Flagler College in St. Augustine, has made local and national headlines following the cancellation of a presentation he was supposed to give to K-8 teachers in Osceola County, Florida. The seminar that was meant to be held on Jan. 22, was canceled only three days before the intended date, with the school district citing concerns over discussing Critical Race Theory as the cause for this cancellation.
Butler stated that his lecture was simply “evidence-based historical fact” covering the civil rights movement using dates and pictures of events and did not include CRT.
CRT is an intricate interdisciplinary framework that suggests that racial prejudice inherently exists in our legal institutions. It is a concept currently taught in graduate school or law school.
Dana Mills, an associate dean of Strategic Planning and Research in the Department of Education at NSU, has studied CRT at the doctoral level and stated that he has never seen CRT taught in public schools.
According to multiple reports, CRT is not taught in K-12 schools in the United States. However, over the past year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has led a campaign in the state for the removal of CRT from Florida schools, asserting that racially sensitive topics may cause discomfort for parents and students.
Butler had recently contended that state-level campaigns and legislation to censor curriculum may have influenced the events in Osceola County. Although Governor DeSantis’ Secretary of Press claimed that the governor had nothing to do with the controversy, the Osceola County School District itself cites “the current conversations across our state and in our community about critical race theory,” as the reason for the cancellation of the seminar. Furthermore, the school district has instated a committee specifically to review training programs for the presence of CRT.
Both Butler and Mills expressed their concerns over censorship based on legislation that lacks clearly defined boundaries and the repercussions this may have on education and the livelihood of educators.
“Teachers were telling me that they are afraid,” said Butler, who proclaimed that the effects on teacher recruitment and retention will be experienced long after the current political powers move on.
Mills questioned whether formerly benign topics will now be construed to warrant censorship, asking if a third-grade teacher may lose their job in the future for teaching their class about Rosa Parks.
This possibility does not seem distant from reality when considering that the Central York School District in Pennsylvania banned the children’s book “I am Rosa Parks” in 2020, claiming that it was related to CRT.
“If one topic can be banned in one state for primarily political purposes, then any topic in any state can be banned,” said Butler.
Mills proposed whether censorship could extend to ban the teaching of other topics which are found to be uncomfortable.
“Climate change… is that next? If I’m doing a biology lesson and I want to talk about how the body fights off a virus, is that maybe something I need to be careful about?” asked Mills.
Mills added, “Teachers are paralyzed by this fear. They could potentially lose their jobs over a misunderstanding.”
The long-term effects this issue may have on teachers and students in the future make it larger than this single incident.
“This is not a story about a professor versus a politician. This is a story about the long-term damage we could be doing to our public education system,” said Butler.
