LARGO, Fla. — Teachers in Pinellas County are preparing for school to start on Thursday.

But before students come into their classrooms, some educators who teach AP Psychology say they’re having to revamp their curriculum at the last minute.

What You Need To Know

  • Teachers in Pinellas County say they're scrambling to prepare for a new psychology curriculum after they were told to exclude a portion of AP Psychology that deals with gender or sexual orientation

  • One teacher we spoke with says he's been given less than a week to prepare for this upcoming school year following last week's announcement

  • According to Manny Diaz, Florida's education commissioner, he believes AP Psychology can still be taught in full as long as its taught in “a manner that’s age and developmentally appropriate.”

The problem comes because of confusion over whether the State Board of Education would allow AP Psychology to be taught in its entirety, which would include discussions over gender and sexual orientation.

For teachers, like Ramsey Aziz, an AP Psychology teacher going into his second year teaching in Pinellas County, he’s seeing a change in how he approaches this upcoming school year and he says it’s not for the better.

“It’s just baffling what has occurred because it seems like every year this idea of what being a teacher is, it’s continuously, continuously been diminished,” Aziz said.

He was told last Tuesday that he would have to alter his AP Psychology course after spending most of the summer preparing for the upcoming year.

“I had prepared myself for this course,” Aziz said. “But, now, out of nowhere, I’m being, you know, I’m forced to teach in a completely different course with completely different materials.”

The Department of Education had said last week that teachers should exclude teaching a portion of AP Psychology that deals with gender or sexual orientation.

As a result, Aziz said he and the rest of the AP Psych teachers in Pinellas County had to spend a day over the weekend to learn how to teach a new form of the curriculum with less than a week before school starts.

“We’ve had less than a week to prep for to prep for a course that, you know, potentially will give the kids’ college credit,” Aziz said.

According to Aziz, he will be teaching Cambridge AICE Psychology now, which comes from the United Kingdom, instead of AP Psych.

He knows there’s nothing that can change ahead of this upcoming year and that he’ll have to keep working to make sure he’s as prepared as can be going into his second year as a teacher.

But, according to Aziz, this approach is not only harmful for teachers but ultimately harmful for students.

“They’re not going to be confident in us and they should be confident that their teachers are professionals and that they’re experts in their field,” Aziz said.

Aziz tells Bay News 9 that he’ll keep advocating for the career he loves and the students he loves to teach.

In connection with last week’s announcement, Manny Diaz, Florida’s education commissioner, said he believes AP Psychology can still be taught in full as long as it is taught in “a manner that’s age and developmentally appropriate.”