- Ron DeSantis worked for one year in Georgia at a private school teaching government and history. The New York Times.
- Former student claimed that DeSantis would play “devil’s advocate”, over controversial subjects such as the Civil War.
- DeSantis, according to the student, was also “mean” or “hostile” to her since she was Black.
Before Ron DeSantis became Florida’s governor, DeSantis spent a year teaching and coaching at a prestigious Georgia private school. One former student claimed that he was hostile towards her because she was black, according to a New York Times report.
According to the Times, DeSantis, a Yale University graduate aged 23, was described as being cocky, but liked by students during his time at Darlington School in 2001-2002.
DeSantis enjoyed teaching government and history, and he liked to debate controversial topics, a former Darlington student, and 2003 graduate Danielle Pompey told the Times.
“Like in history class, he was trying to play devil’s advocate that the South had good reason to fight that war, to kill other people, over owning people — Black people,” Pompey told the Times. He was trying to make it clear that while people don’t have to own their property or businesses, they do not have to own people.
Pompey, who is Black, attended Darlington on scholarship. The Times reported that she felt DeSantis treated Pompey differently because of her race.
Pompey said to the Times, “Mr. Ron was Mr. DeSantis and was mean to me.” “Not aggressively but passively, I was Black.”
Pompey told the Times that she initially thought she and DeSantis would have something in common since they were both from out of state – Pompey from New York and DeSantis from Florida (though he went to Darlington after attending Yale in Connecticut).
Pompey stated to the Times, “He had a great opportunity to enrich people. To come there from Northeast and show people that we can combine.” It seemed that he wasn’t interested in doing that.
Gates Minis was a former student in the class. She said that she recalls DeSantis’s Civil War debats and felt, in some cases he was incorrect factually, the Times reported. Minis said that DeSantis claimed all cities in the South were destroyed during the war. Minis corrected him by pointing out Savannah was not among them.
According to a third student who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was afraid of reprisals at his job, DeSantis’ antics regarding the Civil War were well-known among students. They even made a video mocking him.
A student pretending to represent DeSantis in the video obtained by the Times said that “The Civil War is not about slavery!” It was about two different economic systems. One student was in North …” and another was asleep in the class. According to the Times, the student who made the video said that they didn’t have any footage of DeSantis making these claims.
Insider reached out to DeSantis for clarification but was not immediately able to get back to us.
