No Book Banning

Last February, the Florida governor called out the "book ban hoax" spinning recent censorship legislation as a parents' rights issue. 

“Over the past year, parents have used their rights to object to pornographic and sexually explicit material they found in school libraries,” said Governor DeSantis. “We also know that some people have abused this process in an effort to score cheap political points. Today, I am calling on the Legislature to make necessary adjustments so that we can prevent abuses in the objection process and ensure that districts aren’t overwhelmed by frivolous challenges.”

The governor tells a different story than Leslie Postal reported in the Orlando Sentinel reported. He tells a different story than my teacher friends do. They experienced books being disappeared. They had their classroom bookshelves sealed away with banner paper. They scanned and uploaded titles in their rooms to monitored databases. Teachers' experience doesn't jive with the governor's spin.

Thankfully, this August a federal judge, U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza,  struck down key elements in the overly broad Florida House Bill 1069. Great news! As the AP reports, educators in Florida are encouraged to, "revert back to a U.S. Supreme Court precedent in which the test is whether an average person would find the work prurient as a whole; whether it depicts sexual content in an offensive way; and whether the work lacks literary, artistic, political or scientific value."

Good news! All of the books in my current middle school classroom library have recognized value. Many have won awards. Many are on recommended reading lists. I'm sending a letter home to share the value of reading with parents. I'm scanning the titles in my classroom library using Beanstack, so all can see what's on offer and then. 

Then, we are read. 

Our classroom library is open! 

References

"Judge Strikes Down Key Parts of Florida Law that Led to Removal of Books from School Libraries." 

    4 August 2025. https://apnews.com/article/florida-schoolbook-ban-a3448c8f0bdfb863d1

    a495580b8ce6e4. Accessed 5 August 2025. 

“Governor Ron DeSantis Debunks Book Ban Hoax.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 15 February 2024. 

    https://www.flgov.com/2024/02/15/governor-ron-desantis-debunks-book-ban-hoax-calls-on-florida-

    legislature-to-amend-the-law-to-prevent-abuse-from-activists/. Accessed 2 February 2024.

Postal, Leslie. "Orange school district pulls 673 books from teachers’ classroom shelves." The Orlando 

    Sentinel. 20 December 2023. Accessed 15 June 2024.