VIDEO: DeSantis signs bill instructing Florida schools to teach students about 'evils of communism'

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday at Miami’s Freedom Tower that will require public high schools in Florida to observe “Victims of Communism Day" -- a move which has been applauded by Latinos from both sides of the political isle across the Sunshine State. 

ADN America was live to capture the historic event which was attended by many Miami city officials and Cuban democracy activists such as Orlando Gutierrez, Chairman of the Assembly of the Resistance, Inspire America Chairman Marcell Felipe and Cuba Decide coordinator Rosa Maria Paya.

According to HB 395 – which passed both houses of Florida’s legislature unanimously earlier this year --  public high schools in Florida must instruct students on the horrors of communism each year on or before November 7.

“We want to make sure that every year folks in Florida, but particularly our students, will learn about the evils of communism, the dictators that have led communist regimes, and the hundreds of millions of individuals who suffered and continue to suffer under the weight of this discredited ideology,” DeSantis said at a press conference.

Beginning in the 2023-2024 school year, students will learn about “topics such as Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet System, Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Revolution, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and Nicolás Maduro and the Chavismo movement, and how victims suffered under these regimes through poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence, and suppression of speech.”

Now that the bill has been signed into law, the Florida State Board of Education will also be tasked with revising social studies standards to include materials that align with the “Victims of Communism Day” curriculum.

Last June, DeSantis signed a bill into law requiring students to learn about the “evils of communism.” At the time, the governor told reporters that the bill would require high school students to learn about communism and totalitarianism in government class.

“We have a number of people in Florida, particularly southern Florida, who’ve escaped totalitarian regimes, who’ve escaped communist dictatorships to be able to come to America,” the governor said at the time. 

In Washington, similar efforts have been undertaken by Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, who introduced the Crucial Communism Teaching Act (CCT) in December.

If signed into law, the CCT would help educate American high school students about the dangers of communism and totalitarianism, “and how they are contrary to the founding principles of freedom and democracy in the United States.”

The program is modeled, in part, after Florida’s House Bill 5, which directs the state Department of Education to develop a curriculum that educates students about the evils of communism and totalitarian regimes like those of Venezuela and Nicaragua.

After introducing the bill, Rep. Salazar spoke with ADN America exclusively outlining the importance of her proposed legislation.  

"The youth needs to learn that communism is pernicious and that it has destroyed the lives of Cubans both in Cuba and in exile abroad," she told ADN America.

"It is our responsibility to protect our future generations in the United States and to teach those children that the beauty of democracy and liberty is worth much more than the promises of communism. We know that unfortunately people in this country talk about how bad the United States is, but nobody talks about how bad Stalin or Mao were."

On Monday, DeSantis also approved $25 million for the restoration of Miami’s historic Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College. Long considered the "Ellis Island of the South" for its role as the Cuban Assistance Center from 1962 through 1974, the Freedom Tower is a symbol of hope for Cuban refugees who have sought political asylum from the Castro's communist regime.