Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been a leader in pushing for the removal of far-left curricula from public schools. This week, his office released a new video seeking to highlight the sneaky way some activists continue to inject “political indoctrination” into the education system.
With clips of the activists themselves and critics who seek to combat the trend, the video provides a particularly harsh assessment of the nonprofit group Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.
As the video begins, CASEL Chief Knowledge Officer Dr. Roger Weissberg defends the group’s approach as one that “is trying to bring a balance to the individual” so that “kids can relate and navigate the world more effectively.”
While supporters say social and emotional learning is only interested in improving the lives of children, opponents insist that it is a Trojan horse through which schools adopt the controversial principles of critical race theory.
Several concerned parents can be heard offering their opposition to SEL, including one Texas woman who has threatened to take state lawmakers to court over their perceived inaction on the issue.
“My daughter was socially transitioned into thinking she was a boy,” said Gabrielle Clark. “I had to stop my activism from my son for CRT and change direction and change course and start activism for SEL, social-emotional learning because our children are being indoctrinated on all these different fronts and we need to — we need to do something about it.”
A father featured in the video asserted that he was not consulted before a school in Washington gave his son antidepressants.
“He’s been on them for several months,” the man said. “I had no knowledge. I knew nothing about it, knew nothing. Come to find out, it’s 100% legal. They could do whatever they want with our kids in Washington State in this school program.”
Other sources have argued against the adoption of SEL in public schools, including American Enterprise Institute research fellow Max Eden, who concluded: “What could end up happening at the end of the day is that these mental health initiatives work to reshape students’ minds towards certain worldviews that might be inherently opposed to the values of their parents.”
