Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law on Tuesday a new bill that limits the number of books that can be challenged by individuals who do not have students enrolled in Florida school districts.
The new law, dubbed HB 1285, will limit individuals who do not have students enrolled in the school district to raise one objection per month, according to the governor’s statement.
Those who have children with access to the school district’s materials, including those with home-schooled children, will still have unlimited objections under the new law.
“By focusing on core academic subjects and rejecting indoctrination in the classroom, we have become a standard-bearer for educational excellence,” Mr. DeSantis stated. “The legislation I signed today continues to build on Florida’s previous accomplishments.”
The original law allowed any person—parent or not, district resident or not—to challenge books as often as they wanted. Once challenged, a book has to be pulled from shelves until the school district resolves the complaint.
The governor stated that the new legislation aims to protect schools from activists who are “trying to politicize and disrupt a district’s book review process.”
Protecting the Book Review Process
The new law came after Mr. DeSantis in February urged the state Legislature to enact a policy that prioritizes parents’ voices by limiting “bad-faith objections” made by those who do not have children enrolled in Florida school districts.The governor had also directed the Department of Education “to take the appropriate action to prohibit bad actors in school leadership positions from intentionally depriving students of an education by politicizing the book review process.”
Mr. DeSantis dismissed the notion that Florida bans books as a “false narrative” and emphasized that the state has empowered parents to object to obscene material in the classroom.
“Over the past year, parents have used their rights to object to pornographic and sexually explicit material they found in school libraries,” he said in a Feb. 15 statement. “We also know that some people have abused this process in an effort to score cheap political points.”
The report stated that there were 4,349 instances of book bans recorded across 23 states and 52 public school districts from July to December 2023.
“Book bans are targeting narratives about race and sexual identities and sexual content writ large, and they show no sign of stopping,” Sabrina Baeta, lead author and Freedom to Read program manager at PEN America, said in a press release. “The bans we’re seeing are broad, harsh, and pernicious—and they’re undermining the education of millions of students across the country.”
Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America, said that students are “at the epicenter of the book banning movement” and are “spearheading the fight against this insidious encroachment into what they can read and learn across the country.”
PEN America said that many students have resisted book bans by “staging protests and read-ins, founding after-school banned book clubs; working with teachers to distribute books under the radar; creating funds to purchase new books for districts impacted by bans; and installing free community bookshelves throughout their towns.”
