The inside story of why a Florida school removed a movie about Ruby Bridges

[Joinfortmill]

https://popular.info/p/the-inside-story-of-why-a-florida?utm_source=substack&utm_medium

Heads up, people. This is how easy it is to control school curriculum. Well worth the read (my words).

'Ruby Bridges is a civil rights hero...Bridges was the first Black child to desegregate an all-white elementary school in New Orleans, fulfilling the promise of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education...She faced a mob of protesters screaming racial slurs and had to be escorted by federal marshals. White parents wouldn't allow their children to share a classroom with Bridges, so she was taught alone. She could only bring food from home because federal marshals were worried that Bridges would be poisoned.

In 1998, Disney made a movie about Bridges' life...For years, schools in Pinellas County, Florida, have shown the film about Bridges as part of their Black History Month curriculum...parents were sent a trailer of the movie and asked to sign a permission slip. Emily Conklin, the parent of a second grader at North Shore Elementary in Pinellas County, decided not to allow her child to watch the film...But for Conklin, that wasn't enough. On March 6, Conklin filed an "Objection to Instructional And/Or Media Material" seeking to ban the Ruby Bridges film for all second graders — and even much older students.

According to Pinellas County School Board policy, after "a parent objects to the use of the material with other children besides their own child," the objection must be reviewed by the "School-Based Instructional Materials Review Committee,"...There is no time frame for these reviews. Critically, the "material in question will remain in use until the School-Based Instructional Materials Review Committee recommends a final decision."

Nevertheless, in response to Conklin's objection, North Shore Elementary banned the film from its school pending a review, according to the Tampa Bay Times.'

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. That which is made FORBIDDEN, becomes more ATTRACTIVE.

For it was CURIOSITY that killed the cat so ro speak.

IGNORANCE is bliss with these folks. It is taught.

[jimfields33]

2. I never heard of it. Was it released in theaters in 1988?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Made for TV, 1998

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138068/

[BumRushDaShow]

5. It was apparently an ABC made-for-TV movie in 1998

It's listed as "Disney" because that came out a few years after Disney bought ABC.

Disney To Acquire CapCities/ABC in $19 Billion Merger


STEVEN P. ROSENFELD July 31, 1995


NEW YORK (AP) _ The Walt Disney Co. will acquire Capital Cities/ABC Inc. in a surprise merger of entertainment giants valued at about $19 billion, the companies announced today.

Under the agreement, New York-based Capital Cities, which owns the ABC television network, will become a subsidiary of Burbank, Calif.-based Disney, which produces ABC’s hit comedy series, ``Home Improvement.?

The combined company will be called The Walt Disney Co., with Disney’s chairman, Michael D. Eisner, a former entertainment president at ABC, continuing at chairman and chief executive.

Disney is best known for cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, animated movies like ``The Lion King? and ``Pocahontas,? and its Disney World and Disneyland theme parks.

(snip)

https://apnews.com/article/cb452149b6aef0235a0ed9696ec8278d

I don't recall if I ever saw it but I expect it is along the line of past "made for TV" Civil Rights-themed programming that included documentaries and/or fictional stories that took place during certain eras (not counting "Roots" - another ABC production pre-Disney that blew everything else out of the water but was a miniseries vs a standalone film), like CBS's "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman".

[NCDem47]

3. A permission slip?!?! For a Disney movie about Ruby Bridges?

Oh brother.

[Duppers]

6. + 100

[ZonkerHarris]

7. how do we start one of those online petitions to get ABC to rerun the movie followed by a one hour

20/20 special on this issue with an interview with the still alive 68 year old Ruby?
Where do those petitions that get publicity like this start?