Florida School Officials Ban ‘Ruby Bridges’ Film After One—One!—White Parent Complains

The 1998 Disney movie Ruby Bridges was recently banned at a Florida elementary school because one white parent complained that it wasn’t appropriate for second graders.

According to The Tampa Bay Times, a North Shore Elementary mother submitted a complaint after she did not allow her child to watch the film when it was shown in early March. Emily Conklin wrote that the “use of racial slurs and scenes of white people threatening Ruby as she entered a school might result in students learning that white people hate Black people,” per the news outlet.

The iconic story of a 6-year-old girl who endured racial heckling and harassment when she integrated New Orleans schools in the 1960s has been a “staple of Pinellas County Black History Month lessons for years,” reported The Times.

However, Pinellas school officials responded to the formal challenge dated March 6 by pulling the film from the St. Petersburg school until it can be reviewed.

The banning comes at a seeming perpetual controversial time in Ron DeSantis‘ Florida. The Florida governor’s concern with “woke” culture is fostering an environment that has caused educators to be unsure if even the most basic Black history lessons are appropriate for students.

“They are terrifying teachers. People don’t want to be teachers in Florida,” The View’s Ana Navarro said during a Friday broadcast. Florida’s “insanity” and “manic paranoia,” she said, was compelled by DeSantis’ recent tactics.

“They are banning absolutely everything that isn’t the kitchen sink, and tomorrow, I may wake up, and the kitchen sink has been banned,” she said, per The New York Post.

Ric Davis, president of Concerned Organization for Quality Education for Black Students, sent a concerning open letter to the community, questioning leadership decisions.

”Many from historically marginalized communities are asking whether this so-called integrated education system in Pinellas County can even serve the diverse community fairly and equitably,” Davis wrote. “At the highest level of decision-making in the district, they have to have more sensitivity to the diversity of the community they serve, and not overreact because one white person objected to something.”