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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Gov. Ron DeSantis signs education bill limiting book challenges
By Carlos Suarez, Denise Royal and Nicole Chavez, CNN
Updated:
6:41 PM EDT, Tue April 16, 2024
Source: CNN
Less than a year after signing a law that led to the removal of
hundreds of books from public school shelves, Florida Gov. Ron
DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday that to limit the number of books and
classroom materials that can be challenged in school districts.
The bill, which goes into effect on July 1, states that Florida
residents without children in a school district “” and instructs
the state’s Board of Education to adopt changes to implement the
decision.
The provision does not limit the number of challenges a parent with a
child enrolled in a Florida school district can file or include a
penalty if the law is violated.
DeSantis on Tuesday acknowledged that some school districts in the
state may have gone too far in removing titles from classrooms.
“You have some people who are taking the curriculum transparency, and
they are trying to weaponize that for political purposes,” he said
at an event in Jacksonville, Florida. “That involves objecting to
normal books, like some of the books that I saw in the teacher’s
lounge, these classic books.”
In the first half of the 2023-2024 school year, Florida had the highest
number of bans compared to other states, a report released Tuesday by
the literary and free expression advocacy group PEN America found.
There were 4,349 instances of book bans in 23 states and 53 public
schools from July to December 2023, but PEN America says 3,135 of those
bans impacted 11 school districts in the Sunshine State.
More than 1,600 cases were from a single school district, Escambia
County Public Schools, which is facing a lawsuit in connection to the
book removals,
In February, during a news conference near Orlando, the governor
called on Florida’s Department of Education to “take appropriate
action to prohibit bad actors in school leadership positions from
intentionally depriving students of an education by politicizing the
book review process.”
He called the idea that Florida bans books a “false narrative.”
But across the state, school board meetings have become a battleground
between parents who want certain books removed and those who wish to
have them remain available to students. Meanwhile, Florida teachers and
educators a slate of laws signed by the governor that expand
so-called “parental rights” in schools.
In 2023, DeSantis signed , which restricts sexual education and
classroom “instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in
Pre-K through 8th grade.”
The legislation also allows parents and citizens to petition for
classroom books and instructional materials that include
“pornography” or describe sexual conduct to be removed. Individual
school districts are responsible for creating processes “to handle
all objections” and provide resolutions, .
Since the law went into effect last year, residents have swiftly
objected to a number of books, and individual school districts were
left to develop a process to determine whether the challenged
material would be restricted to a certain age group or removed from
schools altogether.
Despite the removal of hundreds of books from school shelves in the
last school year, DeSantis maintains Florida does not ban books in
schools, but he has acknowledged that “some people have abused this
process.”
“If you’re somebody who doesn’t have a kid in school and you’re
gonna object to 100 books, no, I don’t think that’s appropriate,”
DeSantis said at a news conference in February.
Sabrina Baêta, manager of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program and
a lead author of Tuesday’s report, said the findings should be a red
alert for those who care about American values and free expression.
“Book bans are targeting narratives about race and sexual identities
and sexual content writ large, and they show no sign of stopping. The
bans we’re seeing are broad, harsh, and pernicious – and they’re
undermining the education of millions of students across the
country,” Baêta said in a statement.
When it comes to how many books are banned at public schools, Florida
takes the lead, followed by Wisconsin, which had 481 bans in three
school districts; Iowa with 142 bans in three districts and Texas with
141 bans in four districts. Kentucky and Virginia reported at least
100 bans, according to the PEN America report.
After analyzing the book ban instances, PEN America found several
trends regarding the content of the books and the people involved or
impacted by the bans.
Books that discuss sex, abortion or rape are among the most censored
after claims that their content considered sexually explicit or
“obscene” – a category of speech that is not protected under the
First Amendment, according to the report. PEN America said there is no
consistent legal definition of what is considered sexually explicit
from state to state, “leading to confusion about what is and is not
allowed.”
Other books that continue being targeted are those discussing race,
racism and LGBTQ+ themes, especially transgender identities and
experiences, PEN America said.
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