Authors

Jamel K. Donnor, William & Mary

The Right to a Nuisance-Free Public Education

Abstract

The aim of this Article is to discuss how Florida’s Individual Freedom Act infringes upon Black students’ constitutional right to learn about non-white supremacist ideas, their freedom to think, and a public school’s ability to offer Black-centered curricula content.

[...]

This Article explains that the Individual Freedom Act’s racially encoded wording establishes an academic environment for a racial nuisance to exist because its criteria authorize public education officials to label curricula content under the auspices of indoctrination, divisiveness, or educational value. While the term “nuisance” is typically reserved for determining reasonableness of an “interference with a right common to the general public,” racial nuisance for the purposes of this Article refers to claims, conduct, and policies that originate under the political auspices of reactionary grievance, resentment, or special injury claims (such as “made to feel guilty” claims), which are then subsequently leveraged by white conservative politicians and their political appointees to target and censor ideas that (1) contest American exceptionalism, (2) challenge sanitized depictions of Black life, (3) challenge the current state of Black subjugation, and (4) are inspirational and aspirational. Part I of this Article provides an overview of the Individual Freedom Act’s required instruction provision. Part II defines the concept of a racial nuisance within the context of education. The Article concludes with a brief discussion on why Governor Ron DeSantis and the Individual Freedom Act are a racial nuisance.

This abstract has been taken from the author's introduction.

Repository Citation

Jamel K. Donnor, The Right to a Nuisance-Free Public Education, 66 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1003 (2025), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol66/iss4/5