Stop WOKE Act

The Individual Freedom Act, commonly known as the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act is a Florida state law which regulates the content of instruction and training in schools and workplaces. Among other provisions, it prohibits instruction that individuals share responsibility for others' past actions by virtue of their race, sex or national origin. After passing both chambers of the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature along party lines, it was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on April 22, 2022, and entered into effect July 1 the same year.

Quotes

• CS/HB 7: Individual Freedom
  GENERAL BILL by Education and Employment Committee ; Avila ; (CO-INTRODUCERS) Bell ; Borrero ; Byrd ; Fernandez-Barquin ; Fine ; Fischer ; Grall ; Latvala ; Maggard ; Massullo ; McClain ; Overdorf ; Payne ; Roth ; Shoaf ; Sirois ; Truenow ; Yarborough
  Individual Freedom; Provides that subjecting individuals to specified concepts under certain circumstances constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin; revising requirements for required instruction on the history of African Americans; requiring the department to prepare and offer certain standards and curriculum; authorizing the department to seek input from a specified organization for certain purposes; prohibits instructional materials reviewers from recommending instructional materials that contain any matter that contradicts certain principles; requires DOE to review school district professional development systems for compliance with certain provisions of law.
  • "Florida House Bill 7". Florida Senate.

• This dangerous law is part of a nationwide trend to whitewash history and chill free speech in classrooms and workplaces. It will infringe on teachers’ and employers’ First Amendment rights and chill their ability to use concepts like systemic racism and gender discrimination to teach about and discuss important American history. It prevents students from exercising their right to learn about the history and lived experiences of Black people and other marginalized people in our country. It tells Black and Brown communities that their histories and stories don’t matter.
  “Gov. DeSantis and his allies cannot stifle speech simply because it makes them uncomfortable. Yet, by signing this bill, that is the Governor’s message to Floridians. The First Amendment is clear: no politician holds more power than our Constitution. This blatant attempt to restrict free speech— including the right to share ideas and receive information in classrooms and workplaces— is dangerous for our democracy. The ACLU of Florida will not stop fighting for Floridians’ First Amendment rights.”
  • Amy Turkel, “ACLU of Florida Condemns Bill that Prevents Discussions of Race and Gender Discrimination in Schools and Workplaces, Signed into Law by Gov. DeSantis”, ACLU Florida, (April 22, 2022)

"Judge blocks Florida 'woke' law pushed by Gov. DeSantis" (August 18, 2022)

Anderson, Curt (August 18, 2022) "Judge blocks Florida 'woke' law pushed by Gov. DeSantis". Associated Press.

• ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge on Thursday declared a Florida law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that restricts race-based conversation and analysis in business and education unconstitutional.
  Tallahassee U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said in a 44-page ruling that the “Stop WOKE” act violates the First Amendment and is impermissibly vague. Walker also refused to issue a stay that would keep the law in effect during any appeal by the state.
  The law targets what DeSantis has called a “pernicious” ideology exemplified by critical race theory — the idea that racism is systemic in U.S. institutions that serve to perpetuate white dominance in society.
  Walker said the law, as applied to diversity, inclusion and bias training in businesses, turns the First Amendment “upside down” because the state is barring speech by prohibiting discussion of certain concepts in training programs.
  “If Florida truly believes we live in a post-racial society, then let it make its case,” the judge wrote. “But it cannot win the argument by muzzling its opponents.”
• Another lawsuit, which was filed Thursday by college professors and students, claims the law amounts to “racially motivated censorship” that will act to “stifle widespread demands to discuss, study and address systemic inequalities” underscored by the national discussion of race after the killing of George Floyd, who was Black, by Minneapolis police in May 2020.
  “In place of free and open academic inquiry and debate, instructors fear discussing topics of oppression, privilege, and race and gender inequalities with which the Legislature disagrees,” the lawsuit says. “As a result, students are either denied access to knowledge altogether or instructors are forced to present incomplete or inaccurate information that is steered toward the Legislature’s own views.”
• “What you see now with the rise of this woke ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and to delegitimize our institutions, and I view the wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism,” DeSantis said in a December 2021 speech. “They really want to tear at the fabric of our society.”

"Judge nixes higher education portions of Florida's Stop WOKE Act" (November 17, 2022)

Brasch, Ben (November 17, 2022). "Judge nixes higher education portions of Florida's Stop WOKE Act". The Washington Post.

Elected officials have been doing this for years with the First Amendment. It’s a pretty common playbook that is going to survive DeSantis. ~ Howard M. Wasserman

• A federal judge has paused parts of a Florida law that restricted conversations about race in public colleges and universities, part of one of the nation’s strictest laws against race-based instruction, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
  U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker on Thursday ordered a temporary injunction against portions of the act that restrict how college and university professors present the curriculum and what students can learn in the classroom. The order will remain in place while the court reviews the case.
  DeSantis said he wanted the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees — or ‘Stop WOKE’ — Act to be the nation’s strongest legislation against critical race theory, an academic framework centered on the idea that racism is systemic and not just demonstrated by individual people with prejudices.
  “In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” DeSantis said when announcing the effort in December. “We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other.”
• The Florida law deems it discrimination if a student was exposed to anything that compelled them to believe “he or she must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.”
  Clay Calvert, a law professor at the University of Florida who specializes in the First Amendment, called the law “reprehensible” and hailed Thursday’s ruling.
  “It is definitely a victory of academic freedom of professors in the classroom and students’ ability to receive speech,” he said.
  “Viewpoint-based discrimination allows the government to skew the marketplace of ideas to its own position,” he said. “That’s why it’s so reprehensible.”
• Bryan Griffin, a DeSantis spokesman, defended the law in an email to The Post.
  “The Stop W.O.K.E. Act protects the open exchange of ideas by prohibiting teachers or employers who hold agency over others from forcing discriminatory concepts on students as part of classroom instruction or on employees as a condition of maintaining employment,” Griffin said. “An ‘open-minded and critical’ environment necessitates that one is free from discrimination.”
• Howard M. Wasserman, a law professor at Florida International University, said DeSantis can have it both ways: If the law is upheld, he is vindicated. If the law is struck down, DeSantis can point to “lib-eral” judges usurping the will of the people.
  “Elected officials have been doing this for years with the First Amendment,” Wasserman said. “It’s a pretty common playbook that is going to survive DeSantis.”
• Educators and students are left uneasy by legislation such as the Florida law, said University of Florida constitutional law professor Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky.
  “I’ve had colleagues definitely calling about how can they teach their classes to make sure they don’t even get a complaint under the law,” she said. “It creates this aura of surveillance in every classroom.”
  The law only applies to public colleges and universities, exempting private-school professors, such as Marcia Narine Weldon at the Uni-versity of Miami.
  “It is part of the reason I’m glad to work at a private university: The idea of academic freedom makes you comfortable to raise issues,” she said.
  Students need the ability to play devil’s advocate and speak freely, Narine Weldon said. There’s no way to make the next generation of thinkers and lawmakers without free speech.
  “You can’t write the laws if you’re not willing to hear more than one point of view,” she said.

"With a nod to '1984,' a federal judge blocks Florida's anti-'woke' law in colleges" (November 18, 2022)

Sullivan, Becky (November 18, 2022). "With a nod to '1984,' a federal judge blocks Florida's anti-'woke' law in colleges". NPR.

'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,' and the powers in charge of Florida's public university system have declared the State has unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of 'freedom. This is positively dystopian. ~ Mark Walker

• In a 139-page order issued Thursday, Tallahassee U.S. District Judge Mark Walker excoriated the Re-publican-led bill and blocked it from taking effect in the state's public universities.
  "The State of Florida's decision to choose which viewpoints are worthy of illumination and which must remain in the shadows has implications for us all," Walker wrote. "But the First Amendment does not permit the State of Florida to muzzle its university professors, impose its own orthodoxy of viewpoints, and cast us all into the dark."
• Critics say the bill is designed to prevent schools and workplaces from discussing racism. In August, a group of eight Florida professors sued representatives of the state higher education system over the bill, calling the legislation "racially motivated censorship" aimed at stifling "widespread demands to discuss, study and address systemic inequalities."
  Critical race theory is a decades-old academic framework that examines how racism helped to shape institutions and traditions that exist today.
  The idea was once confined to law school seminars. But over the past two years, the term has become a catch-all shorthand for a variety of conservative bugaboos: workplace diversity trainings, protests over police brutality and high school history lessons.
• In his order, Judge Walker, an Obama appointee, opened by reciting the first sentence of 1984, George Orwell's novel about life under a futuristic totalitarian government.
  "'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,' and the powers in charge of Florida's public university system have declared the State has unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of 'freedom,'" the judge wrote. "This is positively dystopian."

"Florida House Bill 7"

"Florida House Bill 7". Florida Senate.

• An act relating to individual freedom; amending s. 760.10, F.S.; providing that subjecting any individual, as a condition of employment, membership, certification, licensing, credentialing, or passing an examination, to training, instruction, or any other required activity that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual to believe specified concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin; providing construction; amending s. 1000.05, F.S.; providing that subjecting any student or employee to training or instruction that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual to believe specified concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin; conforming provisions to changes made by the act; amending s. 1003.42, F.S.; revising requirements for required instruction on the history of African Americans; authorizing instructional personnel to facilitate discussions and use curricula to address, in an age - appropriate manner, specified topics; prohibiting classroom instruction and curricula from being used to indoctrinate or persuade students in a manner inconsistent with certain principles or state academic standards; requiring the department to prepare and offer certain standards and curriculum; authorizing the department to seek input from a specified organization for certain purposes; revising the requirements for required instruction on health education; requiring such instruction to comport with certain principles and include certain life skills; requiring civic and character education instead of a character development program; providing the requirements of such education; providing legislative findings; requiring instruction to be consistent with specified principles of individual freedom; authorizing instructional personnel to facilitate discussions and use curricula to address, in an age - appropriate manner, specified topics; prohibiting classroom instruction and curricula from being used to indoctrinate or persuade students in a manner inconsistent with certain principles or state academic standards; conforming cross-references to changes made by the act; requiring the State Board of Education to adopt a specified curriculum to be made available to schools for a certain purpose; amending s. 1006.31, F.S.; prohibiting instructional materials reviewers from recommending instructional materials that contain any matter that contradicts certain principles; amending s. 1012.98, F.S.; requiring the Department of Education to review school district professional development systems for compliance with certain provisions of law; amending ss. 1002.20 and 1006.40, F.S.; conforming cross-references; providing an effective date.
  • pp.1-3

• Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
  Section 1. Subsections (8) through (10) of section 760.10, Florida Statutes, are renumbered as subsections (9) through (11), respectively, and a new subsection (8) is added to that section, to read:
  760.10 Unlawful employment practices.—
  (8)(a) Subjecting any individual, as a condition of employment, membership, certification, licensing, credentialing, or passing an examination, to training, instruction, or any other required activity that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual to believe any of the following concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin under this section:
  1. Members of one race, color, sex, or national origin are morally superior to members of another race, color, sex, or national origin.
  2. An individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.
  3. An individual's moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.
  4. Members of one race, color, sex, or national origin cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race, color, sex, or national origin.
  5. An individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears responsibility for, or should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of, actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or national origin.
  6. An individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion.
  7. An individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the individual played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or national origin.
  8. Such virtues as merit, excellence, hard work, fairness, neutrality, objectivity, and racial colorblindness are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race, color,sex, or national origin to oppress members of another race, color, sex, or national origin.
  (b) Paragraph (a) may not be construed to prohibit discussion of the concepts listed therein as part of a course of training or instruction, provided such training or instruction is given in an objective manner without endorsement of the concepts.
  • pp.3-5

"Governor DeSantis Announces Legislative Proposal to Stop W.O.K.E. Activism and Critical Race Theory in Schools and Corporations" (December 15, 2021)

"Governor DeSantis Announces Legislative Proposal to Stop W.O.K.E. Activism and Critical Race Theory in Schools and Corporations". Governor of Florida, (December 15, 2021), News Releases, Staff

• WILDWOOD, Fla. – Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (W.O.K.E.) Act, a legislative proposal that will give businesses, employees, children and families tools to fight back against woke indoctrination. The Stop W.O.K.E. Act will be the strongest legislation of its kind in the nation and will take on both corporate wokeness and Critical Race Theory. Today’s proposal builds on actions Governor DeSantis has already taken to ban Critical Race Theory and the New York Times’ 1619 project in Florida’s schools.
• “In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards. Finally, we must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination.”
• “As the daughter of Cuban exiles who fled from Marxist ideology, I am proud to stand alongside Governor DeSantis and support this proposed legislation that will put an end to wokeness that is permeating our schools and workforce,” said Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez. “This important legislation gives students and employees the resources they need to fight back against discrimination, critical race theory and indoctrination. I’m proud to stand alongside the Governor not only of the free state of Florida but the woke-free state of Florida.”
• “Under Governor DeSantis’ leadership, Florida has very publicly adopted new state education standards for English Language Arts, Mathematics, Civics, Character Education and more, and we are modernizing students’ curriculum and lesson plans to match Florida’s new world-class education standards,” said Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran. “However, our classrooms, students and even teachers are under constant threat by Critical Race Theory advocates who are attempting to manipulate classroom content into a means to impose one’s values on students, when instead schools should be empowering students with great, historically accurate knowledge and giving those students and their families the freedom to draw their own conclusions.”
• “What I have been inspired by the last year is that there is a new group of people emerging and asserting the authority of the American people: these are American parents,” said Chris Rufo, Senior Fellow and Director of the Initiative on Critical Race Theory, The Manhattan Institute. “It is one thing to have critical race theory in Universities; you can ignore it. It is one thing to have critical race theory in the federal bureaucracy. But the fact is, in the last year they have accelerated Critical Race Theory in K-12 public schools and they have done something that no government should do, step between parent and child. Governor Ron DeSantis is not only protecting all of the employees and students in the state of Florida. He is providing a model for every state in the United States of America. Critical Race Theory is wrong; it offers nothing to improve the lives of anyone of any racial background.”
• “I am happy to be working with Governor Ron DeSantis on education, which is one of the most important issues facing our country,” said Dr. Matthew Spalding, Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government, Hillsdale College and Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government, Hillsdale College’s Washington, DC., Campus. “I believe we are on the cusp of a moment of which the idea of education as an issue is re-aligning. It is no longer a question of budget or policy; it is about returning it to its rightful place in the formation of good citizens. We must teach our students honest and true history of America that is unifying and inspiring. I commend the Governor and Commissioner Corcoran for doing so.”
• National examples of Critical Race Theory include:
  *A Philadelphia elementary school forced fifth-graders to celebrate “Black communism” and simulated a Black Power rally to “free Angela Davis” from prison. At this school, 87 percent of students will fail to achieve basic literacy by graduation.
  *Seattle Public Schools told teachers that the education system is guilty of “spirit murder” against black children and that white teachers must “bankrupt [their] privilege in acknowledgement of [their] thieved inheritance.”
  *San Diego Public Schools accused white teachers of being colonizers on stolen Native American land and told them “you are racist” and “you are upholding racist ideas, structures, and policies.” They recommended that the teachers undergo “antiracist therapy.”
  *An elementary school in Cupertino, California forced third-graders to deconstruct their racial identities, then rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.”
  *A middle school in Springfield, Missouri, forced teachers to locate themselves on an “oppression matrix,” claiming that white heterosexual Protestant males are inherently oppressors and must atone for their “covert white supremacy.”
  *Buffalo Public Schools taught students that “all white people” perpetuate systemic racism and forced kindergarteners to watch a video of dead black children warning them about “racist police and state-sanctioned violence” who might kill them at any time.
  *The Arizona Department of Education created an “equity” toolkit claiming that babies show the first signs of racism at three months old and that white children become ”strongly biased in favor of whiteness” by age five.
• National Examples of woke corporate trainings include:
  *Raytheon, the nation’s second-largest defense contractor, has launched a Critical Race Theory program that encourages white employees to confront their “privilege,” reject the principle of “equality,” and “defund the police.”
  *Bank of America teaches that the United States is a system of “white supremacy,” encourages employees to become “woke at work,” and teaches that white toddlers “develop racial biases by ages 3-5.”
  *A Google employee program claims that America is a “system of white supremacy” and that all Americans are “raised to be racist.”.

“Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Legislation to Protect Floridians from Discrimination and Woke Indoctrination” (April 22, 2022)

“Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Legislation to Protect Floridians from Discrimination and Woke Indoctrination”, Governor of Florida(April 22, 2022), News Releases, Staff

• HIALEAH GARDENS, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 7, to give businesses, employees, children and families tools to stand up against discrimination and woke indoctrination. The bill includes provisions to prevent discriminatory instruction in the workplace and in public schools and defines individual freedoms based on the fundamental truth that all individuals are equal before the law and have inalienable rights. This legislation is the first of its kind in the nation to take on both corporate wokeness and Critical Race Theory in schools in one act.
• “No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.”
• “By signing this legislation, which is the first in the nation to end corporate wokeness and Critical Race Theory in our schools, we are prioritizing education not indoctrination,” said Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez. “We will always fight to protect our children and parents from this Marxist-inspired curriculum.”
• “I am grateful that Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have taken a stand against discrimination, especially against revisionist history and ideological concepts that are outside Florida’s academic standards,” said Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran. “These dangerous concepts seek to divide Americans, rather than unite them. This legislation affirms that all students, no matter their backgrounds, should be treated as individuals with unique experiences, and that they should be afforded equal opportunities to find success and fulfillment. That’s why the Florida Department of Education is focused on ensuring our classrooms are teaching children how to think, not what to think.”
• “Every person is created equal and entitled to their dignity as an individual. We have heard concerns that students and workers are being pushed to adopt the personal or political viewpoints of employers, teachers or textbook authors,” said Senate President Wilton Simpson. This bill protects our individual freedoms and prevents discrimination in public schools and the workplace while supporting factual, educational discussions for our students.”
• “Today, Florida took an important step to ensure that our schools and workplaces are spaces where we can have healthy instruction and conversation without losing sight that we are first and foremost individuals. Importantly, the bill provides assurance for parents that some of the most difficult lessons about our nation’s history and current events are taught accurately while treating everyone as individuals,” said House Speaker Chris Sprowls. “Thanks to Speaker pro tempore Avila’s great work carrying this bill and Governor DeSantis signing it into law today, Florida’s students and employees will be judged as individuals, by their words, character and actions, not simply by their race, sex or national origin.”
• “I want to thank Governor DeSantis for being the most anti-woke governor in our nation,” said Senator Manny Diaz, Jr. “No Floridian should ever be subjected to discriminatory content or rhetoric, especially when at school or in the workplace. Florida is committed to objectively teaching our students about important historical facts and events, not indoctrination.”
• “Critical Race Theory takes people and segregates them against each other. Individualism is not exclusive for any race, and it is patronizing to say people have different work ethic based on their skin color,” said Christopher Rufo, Senior Fellow and Director of the Initiative on Critical Race Theory, The Manhattan Institute. “We are in the initial stages down a dark path, but luckily community leaders have said not in this state, not in this country. I think it is a testament to the legislators in Florida and the greatest Governor in the country right now, standing up to these people. He stood up to the lies, he stood up to the ideologs and he stood up to the big corporations because he is on your side and he’s not going to back down.”
• HB 7 protects civil rights in employment and K-20 education by specifying that subjecting an employee or student to a required activity that promotes, advances, or compels individuals to believe discriminatory concepts, constitutes unlawful discrimination.
  Concepts constituting unlawful discrimination include:
  *That members of one race, color, national origin or sex are morally superior to members of another race, color, national origin or sex.
  *A person by virtue of their race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive.
  *A person’s moral character or status as privileged or oppressed is determined by race, color, national origin or sex.
  *A person, by virtue of their race, color, national origin or sex should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity or inclusion.
• The bill also requires instruction, instructional materials, and professional development in public schools to adhere to principles of individual freedom outlined in the bill. Those principles include that no person is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive just by virtue of his or her race or sex and meritocracy or hard work ethic are not racist but fundamental to the right to pursue success.
  The bill authorizes discussion of topics such as sexism, slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation, and racial discrimination, in an age-appropriate manner, and in such a way that does not indoctrinate or persuade students to a certain point of view that is inconsistent with the principles of individual freedom.
  The bill also expands instruction of African American history to develop students’ understanding of the ramifications of prejudice and racism. Classroom instruction will educate students on what it means to be a respectful and responsible citizen and encourage tolerance of diversity to protect democratic principles that our country is founded on. Schools are required to teach factual information on topics including African American history and the Holocaust instead of subjective indoctrination that pushes collective guilt.