ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Disney movie about a civil rights icon will not be banned at a Pinellas County elementary school.
The movie, “Ruby Bridges,” shows the bravery and perseverance six-year-old Bridges needed as she integrated an all-white elementary school in New Orleans in 1960.
A group of teachers at North Shore Elementary in St. Petersburg has used the film to educate second graders in a lesson plan about difference makers.
Melissa Presler’s son is one of the second graders who got to see the movie, and she hoped others will too because of the movie’s message.
“Empathy. That we’re all the same,” she said through tears. “Even if there’s a hard decision that has to be made, you know what is true — what is right in your heart.”
Monday afternoon, she cried tears of relief because a committee of teachers, parents, and community members voted to continue using the film as a teaching tool at the school with no added parameters or considerations.
The vote was necessary because last month, a parent filed a complaint asking the district to remove the film from the school’s approved list of films or send home a letter “explaining the material” to parents before the film is shown.
According to Pinellas County Schools, two weeks before the kids were set to watch the movie, permission slips went out, the standard for any PG-rated movie.
The movie was shown to approximately 60 second-grade students at North Shore Elementary on March 2. Two parents decided to opt out of allowing their children to watch the movie. The district said one of those two parents filed the complaint.
In the complaint, the parent — whose name is redacted in the copy sent to ABC Action News — said the movie would be more appropriate for 8th graders because it might teach students “racial slur, how they are different and white people hate black people.”
Committee members disagreed and voted 7-0 to continue the usage of “Ruby Bridges” in the curriculum at North Shore Elementary.
According to the district, each member watched the movie ahead of the meeting. During the meeting — which lasted roughly 20 minutes — the members said the movie teaches inclusion, perseverance, and American history. They also agreed that it does not violate standards, policies, or state statutes. As a result, the movie will remain available to all schools in the district’s licensed movie library.
Presler was relieved, but she was also disturbed that one parent’s complaint may have kept an entire class from watching the film had the committee decided differently.
“I just hate that it has to come to this,” she said. “It shouldn’t have to come to this.”
Reverend Wayne E. Wilson, who attended the committee meeting, felt the same way.
“It’s ridiculous for us to even be here,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we are — in 2023 — you know, having a discussion whether or not this movie is appropriate for a child to see, but we didn’t think that it was inappropriate for a child to endure.”
According to Wilson, the movie is an important lesson in American history to help future generations avoid repeating the nation’s darker chapters.
“People like to rewrite history, but history has already been written,” he said.
For Wilson, the history of Ruby Bridges is personal.
He grew up in a segregated North Carolina. Though the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling — requiring integration — was made by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954, schools in North Carolina took years to desegregate.
When Wilson graduated high school in 1966, schools in his area were still segregated.
“It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t pretty,” he said. “We walked with our heads up regardless of what we had to endure. Didn’t matter, you know. And Ruby Bridges did that too.”
