As long as we are looking at what DIDN'T happen this week, we might has well revisit This story.
This was the lead sentence:
In a continuation of the Nazi-esque book banning that has characterized the DeSantis regime in Florida, schools have banned Amanda Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb, that she read at Biden’s inauguration
So, thinking that DK is a reliable source of news, I went and posted the story on FB, Then just yesterday, I saw the SNOPES fact check. And lo and behold — there was no banning, just a reasonable choice as to which part of the school library to put the book in, the lower grades (K-4) or the higher grades (5th and above).
Via Snopes, here are the minutes of the discussion regarding Gorman’s poem:
The third book discussed was "The Hill We Climb." Clarification was made that the book's author is Amanda Gorman. The book contains a foreword by Oprah Winfrey. Amanda Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. The poem "The Hill We Climb" was read at the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021. Gorman is the youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration in United States history. For these reasons the SMRC determined the book has educational value because of its historical significance. The vocabulary used in the poem was determined to be of value for middle school students. Therefore, the decision of the SMRC is that the book be shelved in the Middle School Section of the Media Center.
Later in the same story the school made it clear that the book was NOT banned, and there was no indication that a third grader would be prohibited from walking over to the middle school section of the library and reading the poem.
As I said on my follow-up mea culpa post on FB, facts matter, and correcting incorrect facts matters. And taking responsibility for correcting the record matters.