Pranks, Parties and Politics: Ron DeSantis’s Year as a Schoolteacher

Ms. Minis, who’s white and was in the identical historical past class as Ms. Pompey, additionally remembers debating points across the Civil Struggle. Mr. DeSantis wasn’t a lot politically opinionated, she stated, however, in her view, factually unsuitable. She remembers him claiming that each metropolis within the South had burned, though she knew her hometown, Savannah, had not and she or he referred to as him out on it.

One other scholar who requested anonymity as a result of he feared repercussions for his job stated Mr. DeSantis’s takes on the Civil Struggle had been the topic of a lot discuss that college students made a satirical video about him on the time for the video yearbook.

The video, which was reviewed by The Occasions, features a brief snippet by which a voice purporting to be Mr. DeSantis is heard saying: “The Civil Struggle was not about slavery! It was about two competing financial programs. One was within the North. …” whereas a scholar dozes in school. (A scholar voiced the position of Mr. DeSantis, as a result of college students didn’t have any precise footage of him, in line with a scholar who helped put it collectively.)

Abortion was one other problem that got here up in school no less than as soon as, in line with Matthew Arne, a former scholar. Mr. Arne, who was a senior, stated college students talked amongst themselves about Mr. DeSantis expressing his strict perception that abortion was unsuitable. He stated it troubled him when his girlfriend, who was in Mr. DeSantis’s historical past class, advised him about what Mr. DeSantis had stated. He had grown up in California, he stated, and disagreed with Mr. DeSantis’s stance.

“He’s just about held quick to what he believes in,” Mr. Arne stated. Ms. Minis added that he all the time appeared to have his eye on the long run. “He looks like somebody who, as a youngster, was in it for the lengthy sport,” she stated.

A number of college students described Mr. DeSantis as having an air of superiority.

“Mr. DeSantis was type of a smug man,” Mr. Arne stated. College students had been properly conscious that he had simply graduated from Yale, he stated. “It was like a, ‘I’m type of higher than you,’” he stated. “And we had been all simply youngsters.”

A number of college students recalled that Mr. DeSantis was a frequent presence at events with the seniors who lived on the town. Most spoke about socializing with him on the situation of anonymity as a result of they feared backlash for talking publicly about it.