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Three high school students represented by attorney Benjamin Crump are planning to sue Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for rejecting a new high school Advanced Placement African-American studies course, the prominent civil rights lawyer said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
As Common Dreams<\/em> reported<\/a> last week, DeSantis rejected the pilot course in AP African-American studies <\/a>being tested by the College Board\u2014the organization behind the SAT exam \u2014 as he believes it \u201clacks educational value\u201d and violates the state\u2019s Stop WOKE Act<\/a> by promoting critical race theory (CRT). There is little to no evidence that CRT \u2014 a graduate-level academic discipline examining systemic racism \u2014 is being taught in any K-12 school in Florida, or anywhere in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are here to give notice to Gov. DeSantis that if he does not negotiate with the College Board to allow AP African-American studies to be taught in the classrooms across the state of Florida, that these three young people will be the lead plaintiffs in a historic lawsuit,\u201d Crump said during a Wednesday press conference<\/a> at the state Capitol in Tallahassee, referring to students Elijah Edwards, Victoria McQueen, and Juliette Heckman.<\/p>\n Victoria McQueen, a junior at Leon High School in Tallahassee, said that \u201cthere are many gaps in American history regarding the African-American population. The implementation of an AP African-American history class will fill in those gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStealing the right for students to gather knowledge on a history that many want to know about because it\u2019s a political agenda goes to show that some don\u2019t want\u2026 the horrors this country has done to African-Americans to finally come to light,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n