Despite concerns about the potential effects of Florida’s new “Stop-WOKE” law on sex-discrimination training, the president of a national Title IX administrators group does not see the law having any bearing on Title IX training in Florida.
Florida’s House Bill 7, which takes effect July 1, attempts to bar messaging in training materials requiring K-20 employees to subscribe to concepts such as privilege, oppression and inherent biases that are grounded in race and gender. But it also allows such instructions if they are “presented in an objective manner without endorsement,” according to the state Legislature’s summary of HB 7.
The president of the nationwide Association of Title IX Administrators said the group has not been hearing many concerns from Florida Title IX officials about the new law.
“Title IX training has never in my experience included topics that would run afoul of HB 7, so there really is no need to adjust the content (of the current training procedures),” attorney Brett Sokolow told the Florida Record in an email. “College and school administrators can discuss anything they need to about sex discrimination to comply with Title IX without touching on the topics prevented by HB 7.”
The new law also aims to dissuade training or instruction in school and university settings that causes people to feel “guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress” for past actions by members of their race.
“Title IX training needs to be unbiased, and the suggestion in HB 7 that such trainings include the kind of biased content noted in the law would be antithetical to what Title IX is meant to achieve,” Sokolow said.
The Stop-WOKE Act (Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) has generated concerns among several teachers and a diversity consultant, leading to the filing of lawsuits to declare the measure unconstitutional. But this week the federal court in the Northern District of Florida declined to issue an injunction against the law’s provisions while the measure is litigated.