The legislators in Florida face reading while book bans are expanding

After the school year 2023-24, Florida recorded The highest number of prohibited books In the country, 4,500 books in 33 of the 67 public school districts of the state. The history of the handmaidPresent SlaughterhousePresent The color purple And 1984 are just a few of the many famous classics of the The state's prohibition list.

According to Pen America, a non -profit organization that defends free expression and celebrates literature, Florida now leads the United States in the number of books that are banned for the second time in a row.

However, the actual number can be higher than specified. School districts pursue formally challenged books, but do not have to be pulled through books from the shelves without a formal challenge.

The prohibitions of Florida House Bill 1069 are the legislative template “do not say”, which was sponsored by Rep. Stan McClain, the Ocala, a city south of Gainesville, in February 2023. The draft law, which was signed by governor Ron Desantis in May in May. “Sexual behavior” What the state government considers unsuitable to learn about young students.

Many traces of Florida's book give conservative legislators and advocacy groups that gained dynamics during the Covid 19 pandemic, said Allison Grubbs, director of the Department for Libraries in Broward County. While the bans in Texas began, the idea spread nationwide and influenced legislation in countries such as Louisiana and Florida.

“This really started with the anti-mask groups during Covid-19 and then they gave themselves to the rights of parents and education,” said Grubbs. “It's okay when you talk about your own child, but it won't be fine when you talk about other people's children and find out how they increase them.”

The book bans reinforced after Desantis signed the law on parental rights in Florida (Fl HB 1557) in March 2022, known as “Say no gay bill”. The law gave parents more control over how schools teach sexual orientation and gender identity. A month later, Desantis signed Fl HB 7, Prohibition Critical racial theoryAn academic framework that examines systemic racism.

These invoices fall under Desantis' May 2023 “Let children be children“Package that aims to restrict gender identity and prohibit the care of the sexes for minors.

Mothers of FreedomA nationwide conservative group, which was founded in Florida in 2021 with local chapters throughout the state, played an important role in advocacy For FL HB 1557 and other laws according to Desantis' package.

While A Florida House Panel The meeting in March 2023 voted the subcommittee for quality training to 13: 5 for the support of FL HB 1069 and crowded against Floridians, who feared that the legislation would enable book bans.

“The idea that the book will be banned, and all of this is a myth,” said McCain during the meeting.

However, critics argue that because the bans are supported by the government, they serve partisan-aging and not pedagogical interests.

“There was always a challenge for books … but [they] have never been out of the government. That is the difference – that comes from the government what is true, true censorship, ”said Mitchell Kaplan, the founder and owner of Books & Books, an independent bookstore in Miami with a literary foundation that is committed to reading freedom.

Fl HB 1069 demands that the Florida Ministry of Education must first approved the curriculum of a school. If a challenge is submitted, the material in question must be removed within five school days and do not remain accessible until the challenge is solved.

The draft law sets no limits for the number of challenges a person can submit in a certain period of time, and also enables citizens to make objections, even if they have no child in the district that they question them.

Some Floridians believe that the broad wording of the law promotes excessive challenges.

“[The bill] is intentionally ambiguous with very poorly defined terms within legislation-and that means in the draft, ”said Maxx Fenning, the Executive Director at Prism, a non-profit organization guided by young people, which expands access to LGBTQ-inclusive education and sexual health in Südflorida. “It should create a culture among our schools, teachers and educators … essentially to do the dirty work for the legislator.”

In the midst of concerns about the abuse of the challenge process signed Desantis Fl HB 1285 In April 2024, people without children in a district limited to a challenge per month.

Some counties have extensive ban lists. Escambia County on the Alabama border led the state, Ban 1,600 books in 2023-24.

In the meantime, Broward County banned 11 books, so Stift America. Nobody was surprisingly removed from the schools of Palm Beach or Miami-Dade-as Miami-Dade is Florida's largest public school.

“The school district of Palm Beach County did not prohibit any books,” said Steven King, specialist for media relationships for the school district of Palm Beach County, in an e -mail. He added that they follow state guidelines.

Pedagogues and activists get silence that prohibitions silence disproportionately marginalized voices, including LGBTQ authors and authors of colors.

“Books enable us to examine other people's lives to build empathy for people who differ from us, and for people who have different life experiences that we may not understand because we live in these bubbles … and we should work to understand them,” said Fenning.

As Grubbs said, however, books expand the horizon of a child – and sometimes these horizons are beyond that of their parents. This separation between parents and children seems to create a fear that surrounds the books and immortalized the increase in bans.

While the educators are concerned about the social effects of book bans are also concerned with the academic effects, since Florida has the third highest percentage of adults who are not missing fundamental skills to literacy of prose, and leaves the state with a total amount. Literacy rate of 80.3 percent according to the world population test.

“There is a great concern that this is fundamentally harmful to children,” said Grubbs. “Access to a variety of books is important for vocabulary, empathy and reading understanding. Production [children] Fear of the library or fear of certain books is a great concern. ”

Some see book bans as part of A larger conservative urge in public schools– Especially as a republican politician, have an impact on Florida universities.

“Book bans are only the tip of the iceberg. It is a war, a war against public education, and there is an attempt to water down and weaken as much public education as possible, ”said Kaplan. “Where they have more conservative counties, the libraries are incredibly attacked.”

While the bans are continuing, six large publishers, including Penguin Random House and Harpercollins, have together with authors such as John Green and Jodi Picoult. Submitted a lawsuit in August 2024 Against Florida.

The lawsuit argues that terms such as “sexual behavior” are too vague and the rights of first change violate.

In May 2023, the families of Escambia County, Penguin Random House and Pen America sued the local school authority for similar reasons. A federal judge allowed that the lawsuit can proceed In January 2024.

With ongoing legal battles, the attention is now turned to the March meeting of the legislature of Florida – and to Trumps Educational agendaIncluding plans to reduce financing and to reduce the Ministry of Education.

Kim Casey | Medialab@fau

This story was produced by Medialab@Fau, a project by the Florida Atlantic University School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, which approved publication.