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(NEW YORK) — New York City is implementing a new Black Studies curriculum in its public schools from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 as students return this week.

“This is not a curriculum about a particular racial group, necessarily, but about the history of inequality and stratification hierarchy in the United States,” Sonya Douglass, a professor of Education Leadership at Columbia University’s Teachers College who helped craft the syllabus, told ABC News.

“When young people, as well as teachers, who may have not even had access to this content in their own training and education are grounded in that history and grounded in perspectives that may be different than their own, I think it helps us to better understand the challenges that we’re facing currently as a society.”

New York City Public Schools is the largest school district in the United States, with more than a million students. Douglass sees this as an opportunity for New York City schools to be an example for the rest of the country when it comes to education.

The curriculum provides a more inclusive set of perspectives throughout American history to further include the contributions of people of African descent in the U.S. and throughout the world, Douglass said. The curriculum, which is publicly available, acts as a supplement to NYC’s current syllabus — adding recommended reading lists, activities, full day lesson plans and additional units in addition to what students are already learning.

The move by NYC schools comes as some other states like Florida, Texas and Oklahoma limit what can be taught in classrooms or what books are available in schools. Legislators in support of such restrictions argue that certain lessons or material on race, gender or sex may cause some students to feel guilt or shame, while others liken some lessons to “indoctrination.”

The American Library Association documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship, as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources in 2023 — a record-breaking total in the organization’s more than 20 years of recording book banning attempts.

“We’re in the midst of a struggle over the minds of our children and how we choose to socialize them into American society,” Douglass said. “So I see all of this is very much connected in terms of some states who want to limit the teaching of the truth, and others that want to create a more accurate and expansive accounting of our history and contribution.”

The curriculum was created in a three-year-long effort by the Educational Equity Action Plan (EEAP) Initiative, which was funded by the New York City Council. The curriculum was first piloted during the 2023-2024 school year in 120 schools across all five boroughs of New York, according to Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams believes it’s crucial for students to see themselves reflected in the contents of their education, her office told ABC News in a statement. Black students make up approximately 24% of NYC’s public school student population.

“Speaker Adams is excited by the launch of the new Black Studies Curriculum in New York City’s public schools, which will provide students the opportunity to learn about the contributions and legacies of early African civilizations, African-American history, and the modern-day African diaspora,” the statement said.

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(PARK CITY, Utah.) — A Utah judge ruled Tuesday that the case of Kouri Richins, the Utah mother accused of murdering her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl, will go to trial.

The 34-year-old realtor and mother of three, who wrote and self-published a children’s book on grieving following her husband’s death, was arrested last year following a lengthy investigation. She was charged with aggravated murder and drug charges in connection with the 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins.

Eric Richins, 39, was found dead in the couple’s bedroom on March 4, 2022. An autopsy determined he died from fentanyl intoxication, and the level of fentanyl in his blood was approximately five times the lethal dosage, according to the charging document. The medical examiner determined the fentanyl was “illicit fentanyl,” not medical grade, according to the charging document.

Following a two-day preliminary hearing, Judge Richard Mrazik said Tuesday that the prosecution had shown probable cause for the charges of aggravated murder and distribution of a controlled substance.

He said the prosecution had also shown probable cause that she attempted aggravated murder on Feb. 14, 2022, after the state claimed she gave him a sandwich laced with fentanyl — a first, failed attempt to kill him, prosecutors allege.

Mrazik further said the prosecutors submitted sufficient evidence to support a reasonable belief that Kouri Richins had fraudulently secured a life insurance policy on her husband’s death in January 2022 and “had a significant financial incentive to secure his death because she would do better under the premarital agreement if he were dead and her businesses were highly leveraged,” Mrazik said.

A not guilty plea to all charges was entered on her behalf in court on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have alleged Kouri Richins was having an affair and was deeply in debt when she procured illicit fentanyl and attempted to kill her husband a month before he died by poisoning an egg sandwich on Valentine’s Day. He died by a lethal dose of fentanyl on the night of March 3, 2022, according to the probable cause statement in the charging document.

Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth claimed during probable cause arguments in court on Tuesday that Kouri Richins administered the fatal dose of fentanyl in a “lemon shot” so that Eric Richins would “throw it back all at once.”

“She says that in her journal article,” he said. “She learns that it takes a truckload of fentanyl to kill him. She learns that one bite in the sandwich isn’t enough. It has to be administered at once, and it has to be a lot. And that’s why Eric Richins’ toxicology shows five times the lethal amount in his blood and 20,000 nanograms per millimeter remaining in his gastro fluid.”

Her defense, meanwhile, charged there was no evidence she attempted to poison her husband in either instance.

“You have a claim that Mr. Richins was poisoned on [Feb. 14, 2022]. There is no medical evidence. There is no there is no connection, there is no causation, there is nothing but pure speculation that because they believe she tried to kill him and successfully killed him in March, that that must mean she tried it before,” defense attorney Kathy Nester said.

Kouri Richins was also charged with multiple counts of forgery, insurance fraud and mortgage fraud. Prosecutors allege she forged her husband’s signature on an insurance application weeks before he died. The insurance policy, which became effective 10 days before the alleged Valentine’s Day poisoning, had a death benefit of $100,000, according to the charging document.

During the two-day preliminary hearing, prosecutors presented three witnesses, including a detective on the case who spoke to the alleged drug dealer. A cell mapping expert also testified Kouri Richins texted about 30 times in since-deleted messages with an alleged drug dealer leading up to Valentine’s Day 2022. A financial fraud expert also testified about the defendant’s “increasing” debt load from her home-flipping business.

The defense, meanwhile, seized on the fact that detectives never looked at or interviewed other possible suspects in Eric Richins’ death, that there were no pills found in the family’s home and statements detectives made to the alleged drug dealer, a convicted felon, about working with the prosecutor’s office to reduce charges in exchange for information on Eric Richins’ death.

The defense also claimed the cell mapping expert’s data was unreliable.

Bloodworth said there’s evidence Kouri Richins texted her paramour on Feb. 15, 2022, the day after the alleged Valentine’s Day incident, that “if he could just go away … life would be so perfect.”

“And then two weeks later, she assured her paramour, life is going to be different. I promise, hang in there until Friday,” Bloodworth said. “On Friday, Eric Richards is dead.”

Nester argued the text from Feb. 15, 2022, was not proof of murder.

“I mean, this was not a perfect couple. They didn’t have the perfect relationship. But to take a context, one single text, and to say that that gives you a reasonable belief that she tried to kill him the day before, I don’t see the connection at all,” Nester said.

Kouri Richins waived her right to testify, and the defense did not call any witnesses.

Kouri Richins has remained in jail since her arrest in May 2023. She proclaimed her innocence in an audio recording released in May.

“The world has yet to hear who I really am, what I’ve really done or didn’t do,” Kouri Richins insisted in the audio, provided to ABC News through a trusted confidant. “What I really didn’t do is murder my husband.”

Prior to the preliminary hearing, Kouri Richins was appointed new attorneys by the court after her defense filed a motion in May to withdraw from the case due to an “irreconcilable and nonwaivable situation.”

Her defense at the time had also filed a motion asking the court to disqualify prosecutors for what they alleged was gross misconduct, including the claim the state recorded and listened to privileged calls between Kouri Richins and her attorney.

Prosecutors in a statement called the motion “materially inaccurate” and charged it was “filed in bad faith.”

The judge denied the motion to remove the prosecution earlier this month.

A month prior to her arrest in May 2023, the mom of three appeared on a “Good Things Utah” segment on Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX to promote her book. In the segment, Kouri Richins said her husband of nine years died “unexpectedly” and that his death “completely took us all by shock.”

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(NEW YORK) — When Florida parent Rose Taylor discovered that her son’s new teacher would not use his preferred pronouns, it shattered Taylor’s perception of safety in her local North Florida school.

Taylor, who asked to be named using a pseudonym for privacy reasons, says her son declared that he was a boy at the age of 4, and his teachers and fellow students welcomed his name and pronoun changes.

The next year, however, his new teacher wouldn’t call him by the proper pronouns. Taylor’s son told his mother that the teacher could call him a girl, “but no one else could.”

The comment sounded off alarm bells for Taylor: “Adults don’t get special rules for you, especially that go against your personal rules.”

She continued, “This is going to open him up to bullying. This is going to teach him that rules don’t apply to certain adults in authority, which could open him up to any sort of sexual assault, grooming or anything like that.”

Joining a group like Equality Florida’s Parenting with Pride has helped parents like Taylor face such obstacles amid the backdrop of rising anti-LGBTQ legislation and rhetoric.

According to the ACLU, Florida had 14 bills introduced this year that would impact the LGBTQ community — including restrictions on changes to ID cards, the required use of preferred names or pronouns, and more.

In recent years, education has been the target of this kind of legislation, with the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law and the Stop “WOKE” Act restricting what material and content schools can share about gender and sexual orientation.

Supporters say these laws allow parents to decide what their children learn or discuss about certain topics, and should be discussed at home instead of at school. A spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis argued in a post on X that “there is no reason for instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity to be part of K-12 public education. Full stop.”

Many of these bills failed or died in the legislature. One of those bills was from State Sen. Bran Martin, who proposed legislation that would have banned Pride flags from flying at government buildings or public schools and colleges. In an interview with ABC News, Martin called sexual orientation and gender “adult issues” and argued that these laws are intended to “protect children.”

“No one’s attacking kids for their sexual orientation or their gender identity,” Martin said. 

Instead, he noted that some constituents and legislators do not believe young kids should be having conversations related to gender or sexual orientation in the classroom.

“There’s so many, so many good books that kids can learn to deal with self-esteem and how to deal with their friends and how to be successful, or how to deal with unique experiences in their life,” Martin said. “We don’t have to have our shelves full of kids’ books dealing with sexual identity when there’s so much other information to learn that can be taught.”

Florida parent Jennifer Solomon told ABC News her youngest son didn’t know anything about politics or the different gender identities when he began showing signs that his gender expression might not align with what is typical for boys his age — such as wanting to wear dresses.

She created local LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG Miami when she discovered there were few local resources for parents with children like her son, and she needed guidance and support.

“I realized that I had a story to tell, that I had this incredible child that I was given to raise, and he changes hearts and minds everywhere he goes,” she said.

She thought middle school might be a “nightmare” for her child due to her fears about bullying and his safety — “I was wrong,” she said.

“He is student council president. He is on the cheerleading team. He just made the competitive dance team,” Solomon said. “He has shown me and shown others that you can live as who you are, and others will accept you if we get the politicians and the lawmakers to kind of move out of the way and let our kids just be who they are. “

Now, as the Parents and Families Support Manager for Equality Florida, Solomon hopes Parenting for Pride can help parents address efforts to restrict representation in classroom content or restrict how students can express themselves in schools.

Parenting for Pride — which just held its first summit with more than 200 participants — offers workshops, panels and trainings on online safety, health and wellness, Title IX, and more.

Hillsboro County parent Ellen Lyons attended the summit on behalf of her school’s Parent-Teacher Association to learn how to better make all families feel “welcome and included.”

“Students generally have been concerned about the impact of legislation on the books that they can read, on the way they can address one another, of the way that teachers can address them,” said Lyons. “And so one of the things that PTA wants to do is have all of the knowledge about what the current state of affairs is, so that we can give people accurate information and help people advocate for their students.”

Parenting with Pride has created a network of more than 2,000 families — an effort local activists are encouraging amid the growing anti-LGBTQ sentiment.

“We are parents, and we are demanding our parental rights, because it’s not just parental rights for some, but parental rights for all,” said Solomon. “Enough attacking my child. I’m willing now to be in a space of advocacy that I never thought I would be in.”

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