The College Board recently released a new course called AP African American Studies, and this new course was banned by Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida from being added to curriculum.

Nailah Bonner, senior, said she was disappointed, but not surprised about Florida’s reaction to the AP African American Studies class.

“We are going into 2023, and we still have people out there like ‘no we can’t teach that’ or ‘we’re not going to teach that’,” Bonner said, “I feel sorry for them and I feel really bad for the kids down there who are missing out.”

Bonner said adding an AP African American Studies course would be another step in the right direction.

“If we start to include Black history, maybe we can include more than just white and Black history. Maybe we can include Hispanic history, Pacific Islander,” Bonner said.

Bonner said the class is necessary as there is a lot more to African American history than just slavery and Jim Crow.

“It’s not just about Rosa Parks and MLK,” Bonner said. “Yes they were important, but there’s more people that contributed to the story.”

Sarah Clark, junior, said it would be great if an AP African American History class would be added into the district curriculum.

“Others can learn more about our point of view in a deeper meaning,” Clark said. “Most of my Black history came from stories I see online or people that told me about it, other classes that I have taken off campus and not actually from school.”

Clark was also unimpressed with Florida’s ban on the AP African American Studies course.

“It’s very unfair that a lot of other cultures and different people get to have their own classes but it’s an issue with an African American, so it’s still racism that’s going on that people refuse to talk about or notice,” Clark said.

Dr. Shelley Willott, assistant superintendent of learning and support services, said the program review for courses was last year and occurs every six years. This means the AP African American Studies class will not be considered until the program review cycle resets.

The most recent program review did result in the addition of a Women’s History course as it was the most popular amongst students, with the St. Louis History course being the next most popular, and an African American history course being the third most popular. At the time, the AP African American Studies course did not exist, Dr. Willott said.

“We are always open to looking at that,” Dr. Willott said. “It’s important to know that in the past, when we added an AP course, we have typically sat back a year or two and watched how that course unfolded and looked at data after the first couple times that course was implemented before we put it in place.”

The district is also waiting to consider the AP African American course to wait and see how much of the content of the course overlaps with the Black Lit course, which is already running, Dr. Willott said.

“You would be possibly taking kids from the Black Literature course to take the AP course, and you’re not necessarily expanding,” Dr. Willott said. “We don’t jump on anything just because it’s brand new. We want to take a look at it.”

Scott Szevery, social studies department chair, said he would be thrilled if an AP African American Studies course was accepted.

“It’s an area of American history that definitely there’s a lot of interest in it right now, and it’s incredibly relevant to not just African Americans stories, but to the history of this nation as a whole,” Szevery said. “African Americans have deep roots in this country and their history has been caught up in just about every major issue or struggle or era we’ve been through.”

However, Szevery said he has concerns about the addition of new history classes because there are already so many options for students and there is a possibility that there would not be enough students to fill new courses.

“If you’ve got 10 courses, and 5 students sign up for those 10 courses each, well you can’t run a class with only 5 students in it; whereas, if you have fewer courses, then you are going to have more students enrolling in those courses,” Szevery said.

If a new course is added, Szevery said he would advocate for a different course to be dropped to restore a more finite number of choices.