In early August, the College Board, an organization that oversees the 30+ AP classes available to high school students, issued a statement addressing the AP Psychology course  and the “ban” placed; “The Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law… we cannot modify AP Psychology in response to regulations that would censor college-level standards for credit, placement, and career readiness.” 

The course doesn’t have a strict ban in Florida. The American Psychological Association makes it clear that no college credit should be given to any student taking an AP Psychology class without information about the role of gender and sexual orientation on the brain.  

This isn’t the first time, and possibly not the last, that education has been targeted in Florida by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who recently signed the “Protect our Children Act”–more commonly the “Don’t Say Gay” bill- which prohibits any discussion of sexual or gender identity in all grade levels.  

Ron DeSantis has many goals he wants to accomplish as Florida’s governor, like those he wishes to complete while in office if elected. His attack on “woke culture”, however, seems to only be an attack on minority groups. This isn’t the first AP class the state of Florida has restricted, with AP African Amercian Studies being rejected, supposedly due to teachings of critical race theory. Bryan Griffin, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, said “As submitted, the course is a vehicle for a political agenda and leaves large, ambiguous gaps that can be filled with additional ideological material, which we will not allow.” Whatever that means.   

DeSantis and his followers claim teachers are the ones indoctrinating students, but when education laws like this are passed it raises questions surrounding the belief system held by our state government. Openly Christian, DeSantis portrays his faith as a way to teach children the “right” way, keeping the lines between personal belief and simple knowledge blurry. 11th and 12th graders take the AP Psychology class and exam, so why are they treating the content as though it’s made for elementary aged children?  

College Board said that all students are required to know is “how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development,” which is a realistic expectation. Nothing is outwardly wrong with learning how women and men psychologically differ, nor is anything wrong with learning how being gay can affect someone’s socialization. And it’s not like the kids taking this class will never see this content elsewhere. For example, if a teen takes the class and fails the AP exam, and wants to continue learning psychology in college, they will have to learn all of this information. It would be impossible to not learn about gender roles or sexual orientation further in their education; if not a psychology class, then a literature or biology course. At the very least, whatever a teen hears daily in their high school hallways is much more offensive than anything the College Board has in their curriculum.