The fate of the popular course AP Psychology in our public schools is still undecided. The 30-year-old class is suddenly mired in controversy because the Florida Department of Education objected to its gender identity and sexuality component, saying it violates the Parental Rights in Education law, the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Meanwhile, Tuesday the Broward County School Board spent hours on an agenda item that took about five minutes last year and generated zero controversy. The board was considering the approval of 98 resolutions, such as marking Hispanic Heritage Month, autism awareness, breast cancer awareness, and many more. It was the three resolutions supporting the LGBTQ community, which drew a crowd of supporters and opponents to comment.
“Many parents are concerned with an overexposure to this agenda,” said Marta Mesa of Weston.
“No one is trying to force your child to be LGBTQ+,” said board member Sarah Leonardi, who pointed out that the resolutions are not curriculum and they do not violate the law.
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The board voted 6-2 to approve the long list of resolutions after hearing from dozens of speakers.
“I know firsthand how it feels to be seen and accepted for who you are and to not be, and that’s the feeling we want our students to have, so by standing up for pride and LGBT history, we’re saying hey, you, no matter what, we’ve got your back,” said Elijah Manley of Fort Lauderdale.
“I oppose the resolutions for pride month, LGBTQ history month and a day of silence, how can anyone guarantee that the discussions about sexuality or gender ideology are not gonna happen in the classroom? You can’t,” said Sabrina Artilles, who was wearing a Moms For Liberty shirt.
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The College Board has refused to remove the section of AP Psychology which discusses gender and sexuality. School board member Dr. Allen Zeman said in the board meeting Tuesday that other providers, including Cambridge, have deleted those topics from their advanced psychology courses.
“That, to the American Psychological Association, makes it not a fully equivalent course, and not giving everybody the content that they need to say they’ve taken a college-level psychology class,” Zeman said.
Miami-Dade School Board member Luisa Santos seemed optimistic on the issue.
“I am confident that very soon we will have reassurance that every single school that planned to offer AP Psychology will be able to do so,” Santos said, referring to her school district.
Florida education commissioner Manny Diaz sent a letter to superintendents last week, seeming to give AP Psychology the green light, writing, “AP Psychology can be taught in its entirety in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate.”
Broward superintendent Dr. Peter Licata spoke to Diaz personally and said the status of the class is still not clear. I asked Licata if Diaz indicated that the class could be taught the way it is, without teachers being penalized.
“He said it just like he worded it in his letter,” Licata said.
I asked Licata if he knew what “age appropriate” meant in the letter.
“Well we know that course is not taught to middle school children, it’s usually a higher, high school credit, so we need to make sure if we’re going with College Board AP, it’s going to be students who will be age-appropriate,” suggesting there might be another option. “I feel confident that we’ll have resolution to this.”
Palm Beach County, Orange County, and Brevard County are among the school districts which have already deleted AP Psychology from their offerings for this school year.
Last year, more than 27,000 students took the course in Florida, earning college credit for it.
