Public school districts across Florida are working to comply with several new state laws designed to stop the sexualizing of young school children and the indoctrination of students with racially prejudicial theories.
As a result of the legislation, all books and other materials in school libraries and classroom book collections must be inventoried and reviewed by state-certified media specialists.
Recommended reading lists, newly purchased books, and donated books also are to be scrutinized.
The specialists are expected to be drawn from working or retired librarians and media-certified school personnel who have undergone compulsory training from the Florida Department of Education (FDOE).
According to an FDOE memorandum, by July 1, and annually thereafter, every school district superintendent must certify that all librarians and media specialists in their employment have completed the required online book evaluation training.
No materials, printed or digital, including books on recommended reading lists, may contain pornography, according to the standards.
The training program uses this Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s definition of the word pornography as a guide: “The depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement.”
According to the FDOE training guide, the material must not “predominantly appeal to a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest,” or be obviously offensive to the community’s prevailing standards of what is suitable for minors.
All material must be “appropriate for the grade level and age group” to whom it is made available.
Florida law prohibits K–3 students from receiving any type of teaching or instructional materials dealing with sexual orientation or gender identity.
Only materials that are deemed “age-appropriate” can be made available to students in higher grade levels.
The statute also gives parents the right to appeal an “age-appropriate” determination they disagree with in court.
It is a third-degree felony in the state of Florida for any adult to provide pornography to a minor.
The FDOE has advised school personnel to “err on the side of caution” when determining if a book is “developmentally appropriate” for student use.
Teachers found guilty of offering to students a book deemed inappropriate could face up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
“Given the rapid spread of book bans across the country, it seems inevitable that the resulting climate of caution and fear will result in a reluctance of teachers, administrators, and librarians to take risks that could affect their own employment, their budgets, their reputations, and their personal safety,” according to a report issued by PEN America, a national civil liberties advocacy group.
PEN America is a New York-based, non-profit organization, describing its mission as being dedicated to “championing the freedom to write [and] recognizing the power of the word to transform the world.”
Stirring Nationwide Controversy
Recently, many state legislatures and school boards have begun requiring the removal of school library and classroom library books that do not meet specified standards.
The Florida Citizens Alliance applauds the measures.In an online statement, the group defended efforts to shield school children from pornography, saying, it is reasonable to temper individual rights with “some form of moral principles and values.”
“They don’t allow the students to have drugs or guns in school. Why should they be provided with illegal, inappropriate, and harmful materials and books?” said the group’s co-founder and CEO Keith Flaugh in an interview with The Epoch Times.
PEN America compares the scrutiny of school library books to the anti-communist fervor that swept through America in the 1950s known as “The Red Scare.” The group calls the present situation “The Ed Scare.”
PEN America documented at least 15 cases, including one in Florida, of criminal charges filed in the 2021–2022 school year over the distribution of obscene or pornographic material in school and public libraries.
Local law enforcement eventually dropped those cases.
Social media has exploded with pushback from Florida educators objecting to the new laws, which some describe as book banning and censorship. Some say the book evaluations waste of time and resources.
He believes students have the freedom to read a wide spectrum of books.
But Flaugh believes that working to prevent “the damaging of school kids outweighs the cost.”
Hannah Petersen, a mother from Lakeland, Florida, told The Epoch Times, “They could make an X-rated film out of the school library books I examined.
“I thought I’d find a few swear words. Instead, I found bestiality, sexual assault, and child rape.
“Exposure to these things can have life-long ramifications for a young, developing mind.”
No More Critical Race Theory
The book evaluation training guide also requires that the approved print and digital material “support the broad racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural diversity” of Florida’s students.The content of the material should not reflect “unfairly upon persons because of their race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, religion, disability, socioeconomic status, or occupation,” according to the FDOE guidelines.
The training program urges evaluators to avoid titles that contain “unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination.”
Materials that teach the principles of critical race theory (CRT)—that an individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, is inherently racist or oppressive—now must be rejected in Florida.
Instead, instructional materials chosen must be “accurate, objective, balanced, noninflammatory, and current,” according to the state’s guidelines.
- No person is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex.
- No race is inherently superior to another race.
- No person should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, disability, or sex.
- Meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are not racist but fundamental to the right to pursue happiness and be rewarded for industry.
- A person, by virtue of his or her race or sex, does not bear responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.
- A person should not be instructed that he or she must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.
Bringing Back Founding Principles
The Florida training asks the specialists to look for books that advocate good stewardship of the environment, promote humane treatment of animals, highlight thrift, and expound on the dangers of substance abuse.“Whenever appropriate for social science, history, or civics courses, the materials submitted must contain the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States,” reads the training guide.
Florida law mandates that school librarians and media directors compile a list of all books and digital materials that is available to their students. The online database of titles must be accessible to parents and community members.
Which Books Are Being Removed?
The compilers of PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans found that 41 percent of the banned titles contained LGBT themes and 40 percent had main characters that were people of color. In recent years, an increasing number of books containing LGBT themes and more racially-diverse characters have been published.Twenty-two percent were removed because of sexual content and 21 percent for focusing on racism.
The most frequently removed book was “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe. Parents across the country have called for its removal from their children’s school libraries because of graphic descriptions and illustrations of sex acts.
Ellen Hopkins was the most frequently banned author.
The index analyzed 2,552 instances of books being removed from libraries nationwide from July 2021 to June 2022, a figure researchers say they believe is underreported.
Which States Are Removing Books?
Book removals were reported in 138 school districts across 32 states.Of the 32 states, Texas had the most instances, with 801 removals of books in 22 school districts. Florida posted 566 in 21 districts, Pennsylvania had 457 in 11 districts, and Tennessee rounded off the top four with 349 rejected in six school districts.
The PEN America report asserted that “the resulting harm is widespread, affecting pedagogy and intellectual freedom and placing limits on the professional autonomy of school librarians and teachers.
Pressure from Parent Groups
As an indication of the recent rise and impact of the parental rights movement on school policies and legislation, the PEN America analysis identified more than 50 citizen groups—pushing to remove books they deem unfit for children.The top eight of those groups have more than 300 local chapters across 38 states. Seventy-three percent of the organizations were formed in the last two years.
One of the largest is Moms for Liberty, with more than 200 chapters nationwide.
April Borton, a Michigan grandmother attending a Moms for Liberty rally, said it broke her heart to see what her local school board did to students in her school district.
“They confused my five-year-old granddaughter when her kindergarten teacher told her she can be a boy if she wants to,” Borton told The Epoch Times.
“Now, that’s disturbing. We’ve always gone along to get along, but now we have to stand up, or it will be too late.”
PEN America condemns the groups’ efforts, writing that “these parental and community groups have played a role in at least half of the book bans enacted across the country during the 2021–2022 school year.”The report added that such parent-led groups are “swarming school board meetings, demanding newfangled rating systems … using inflammatory language about ‘grooming and pornography,’ and even filing criminal complaints against school officials, teachers, and librarians.”
The success of the Florida Citizens Alliance in pressuring a school system to apply warning labels to more than 100 books was cited by the index as an example of the effectiveness of such organizations.
PEN America warns that some of these groups “espouse Christian nationalist views.”
School Officials Surprised by Furor
PEN America warns the “atmosphere of intimidation” created by the parents’ groups undermines the ability of communities to “discourse” in a “measured way.”“[Book] challenges are coming with such increased frequency … that [school officials] struggle to keep up, as well as to withstand the heightened political pressure and public scrutiny,”
Educators have been taken by surprise by the “degree of focus and determination” displayed by citizen groups in the pursuit of their objectives, PEN America researchers wrote in their report.
Public libraries are also being targeted “with calls to ban books; efforts to intimidate, harass, or fire librarians; and even attempts to suspend or defund entire libraries,” according to the report.
The PEN American Index characterized the movement to remove books as “undemocratic,” because it imposes restrictions on all students “based on the preferences of those calling for the bans.”
The ‘Marginalized’ Hurt the Most
PEN America activists say they worry that book bans harm students “who have a right to access a diverse range of stories and perspectives … and especially [harms] those from historically marginalized backgrounds who are watching their library shelves emptied.”The effect of the book removals, together with the “punitive, surveillance-oriented” attitudes of those in some states who are advocating them is “chilling” to teaching and learning, according to group’s report.
Many parents question the validity of that poll, and say PEN America has greatly exaggerated the “danger” or “harm” of removing sexually graphic and racially charged materials from school library shelves.
