I wrote back in February about how the book banning frenzy in Florida caused solely by Ron DeSantis was a complete and utter mess. Well, I have an update for you: it’s still a complete and utter mess. And despite Gov. Ron DeSantis’s ongoing attempts to shift the blame, this mess is due solely to him.
DeSantis heavily pushed for the passage of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law in 2022 and its expansion in 2023, because he thought it would help get him into the White House — as part of his anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Black, anti-”woke,” anti-everything agenda. We all know how well his miserable presidential bid went, and ever since he dropped out of the race he’s been trying to backtrack on his unpopular anti-woke moves in Florida. He clearly overreached and most Floridians are fed up with it. A refresher about the Parental Rights in Education law:
The bill aims to expand Florida law to require that books facing objections for being pornographic, harmful to minors, or describe or depict sexual activity must be pulled within five days and remain out of circulation for the duration of the challenge.
It also expands school board jurisdiction to classroom libraries. The bill would allow a parent who disagrees with a district’s ruling on a book challenge to appeal the state education commissioner to appoint a special magistrate to hear the dispute.
Since the passage of this law, Florida has been on a nation-leading book banning frenzy:
According to PEN America, at least 1,400 titles have been pulled from Florida public schools.
State officials have lower numbers. Between July 2022 and July 2023, state officials say there were 1,218 objections to books that resulted in the removal of 286 books. More than half of those objections came from two school districts, Clay and Escambia.
Some of the titles that have been removed from circulation in some grades include encyclopedias, dictionaries, Toni Morrison’s first book “The Bluest Eye,” and the poem The Hill We Climb, which was recited by poet Amanda Gorman at the Jan. 20, 2021, inauguration of President Joe Biden.
School administrators have been begging the DeSantis administration time and time again to provide more clarity on the vaguely worded law, to no avail. Florida’s Department of Education did issue a memo that told local school officials to “err on the side of caution” — whatever that means — when selecting books for school libraries in order to comply with the law. So school officials have been trying to do that, with wide variation among districts, leading to understandable chaos.
So in February DeSantis held a press conference to declare that this mess was not due to him and his cronies, but to a few “bad actors” who were trying to “confuse this issue,” and he told them to “knock it off.” He never specified who these “bad actors” were or what he exactly wanted people to do. Not surprisingly, his announcement didn’t help the situation at all.
So in another effort to try to stem the mess he created, DeSantis just signed a new law that, starting July 1, will cap the number of book challenges residents without kids in school can file to one per month, though no penalties are outlined in the law. Today his also going to consider a rule that would that — you guessed it — blame school principals for banning books they shouldn’t be banning, even though they’re getting no guidance from DeSantis and his cronies about removing book titles.
...(the rule) would penalize Florida school principals if the state determines they illegally prevented students from looking at library books in their schools. The punishment would include revoking or suspending their educator’s certificate.
The rule is broadly written, but if approved, school principals could be punished if their schools or school personnel prevent students from accessing any material used in a classroom, library or reading list unless they have reviewed the material and determined it violate state law.
These most recent moves by DeSantis will do absolutely nothing to improve Florida’s book banning mess. You tell schools to remove books that people find to be objectionable, without specifying any criteria, then blame them if they go too far, although you don’t specify what it means to go too far.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said the new law and proposed rule will do little to address the book challenge issue in Florida, saying DeSantis has long empowered “fringe groups” that have led the charge in challenging books in schools.
“This rule does nothing to fix the vague language that caused the issue in the first place, no matter how much the Governor and Commissioner Manny Diaz try to shift blame,” Spar said. “Schools, teachers and media specialists have long been asking for guidance on this issue and once again, instead of providing students what they need, Florida’s elected and appointed officials decide to play the blame game instead of taking responsibility.”
Welcome to Florida, where justice and equality come to die.