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Ruby Bridges Anti-Racism Movie Pulled by Florida School After Parent Complaint

Ruby Bridges Anti-Racism Movie Pulled by Florida School After Parent Complaint
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Ruby Bridges Anti-Racism Movie Pulled by Florida School After Parent Complaint

A Florida parent has claimed that Disney's anti-racism movie Ruby Bridges is not appropriate for children, as it teaches them that “white people hate Black people."

A Florida parent has claimed that Disney's anti-racism movie Ruby Bridges is not appropriate for children, as it teaches them that “white people hate Black people."


North Shore elementary showed the film to around 60 second-graders on March 2, sending out permission slips to families beforehand. On March 6, the school received a formal complaint from Emily Conklin, who claimed the movie's content was not appropriate for children.

Ruby Bridges made history as the first Black student to attend an all-white school in Louisiana during the Civil Rights Movement. She notoriously received an onslaught of abuse from white adults when entering the building and had to be shielded by the National Guard.

When the movie first aired in 1998, Bridges told the Florida Times-Union that it was "important to look at this film to see what a six-year-old child had to go through, what a family went through just to be able to have the same privileges as everyone else."

"I think ideally that people will think about that and do everything they can not to pass prejudice on to their children," she said at the time.

In her complaint, Conklin argued that the movie's portrayal of racial slurs, as well as a line where one adult screams “I’m going to hang you!” at Bridges, who was in first grade at the time, was not appropriate for second-graders. The school will no longer show the movie until a separate committee reviews “the challenged material."

Florida's July House Bill 1467 mandates that school books and other materials be "age-appropriate," free of pornography, and “suited to student needs.” It also requires that books be reviewed by a state-trained media specialist, and allows parents to more easily contest subjects.

Giving a student a disallowed book constitutes a third-degree felony, which could amount to five years in prison as well as a $5,000 fine. Educators also risk losing their jobs, as a principal of a school in Tallahassee was recently forced to resign after showing an image of Michelangelo's David.

Florida Democratic congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz slammed the Pinellas district's decision to pull the film, writing in a Tweet that it constituted an attempt "erase history."

"How can it be that a black child once needed police escorts to attend class, yet students today must be shielded from this truth?" she said.

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Ryan Adamczeski

Digital Director

Ryan is the Digital Director of The Advocate Channel, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She is also a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics.

Ryan is the Digital Director of The Advocate Channel, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She is also a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics.