TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Florida Capital Bureau) – This month, Florida released its annual “banned book” list, reigniting the debate surrounding it.
Florida leads the nation in total school book removals according to Kasey Meehan, the Freedom to Read Director at PEN America.
This year, only 10 of the state’s 67 districts pulled titles. But together, they removed more than 600 books.
The Department of Education released a statement to Gray Media’s Capitol Bureau saying Florida “does not ban books.”
Additionally, they said, pursuant to 1006.28, Florida Statutes, “Each district school board is responsible for the content of all instructional materials and any other materials used in a classroom, made available in a school or classroom library, or included on a reading list” no matter how the district obtains the book.”
In an annual report that is submitted to the DOE, districts must report any objections, removals, or reasons books stayed on shelves.
Experts like Meehan said the books that get flagged are often labeled “pornographic, obscene, or sexually explicit, but that category leaves room for interpretation.
“From our research on titles that are being removed, we have not come across any true illicit or pornographic material. The material that overwhelmingly get swept from shelves are books that talk about race and racism, books that have characters of colors, books that discuss sexuality and gender identity or have LGBTQ+ representation. Books that talk about sex and sexual experience. Books that also talk about violence and sexual violence against people,” said Meehan.
After the list came out, Florida’s Education Commissioner Henry Mack released a memo calling for district leaders in all of Florida’s counties to ensure that they are complying with the state’s statue.
He said that the burden is often placed on the parents.
“A process that depends on a parent discovering explicit material, reading it in a public meeting, and then forcing a district response is not only severely flawed, it is administrative neglect masquerading as either ignorance or ineptitude,” Mack said.
Meehan said this is an incomplete read on the situation.
“What first started as individuals challenging a list of titles has morphed into groups, well organized groups putting pressure across districts in the state to ban a long list of titles. We’ve seen the introduction of multiple state laws that have introduced sort of vague and confusing directives around what is and is not permissible for schools,” she said.
Stephana Ferrell, the Director of Research & Insight at the Florida Freedom to Read Project echoed this sentiment.
She highlighted the Commissioner’s mention of Clay, Escambia, and Nassau counties as examples that omit circumstantial detail.
“The state’s report doesn’t provide any of that context, and it doesn’t demand districts include much of it either. So, perhaps the commissioner isn’t aware of the circumstances behind the numbers. Either way, the state’s list was never intended to dictate the decisions made in other districts, and it doesn’t provide enough information to make a fully-informed decision,” she said.
Sunday begins the American Library Association’s National Banned Books Week.
PEN America and the Florida Freedom to Read Project plan to release their own lists to account for what they call an “undercount” due to the state not accounting for unofficial processes that lead to removal.
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