TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida is moving forward with a revised training program for local public school officials in charge of policing libraries and classroom shelves, including language changes that free speech advocates say misrepresented state law and led to unnecessary book recalls.
“Based on input from some stakeholders, we would like to provide clarifying language,” State Board of Education K-12 Chancellor Paul Burns said this week before the board approved. The board’s vote came after more than half a year of questions and concerns from advocacy groups and others, prompted by the Florida Department of Education’s October memo that instructed school leaders to remove any books containing “sexual conduct.” “. This is due to a law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Advocates like Stephana Ferrell, co-founder and director of research and insight for the Florida Freedom to Read Project, applauded the state’s action but said there are still some problems in training that could lead to more expulsions. She was disappointed that it took so long to make the change, believing that no action was taken until another group, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, brought up the litigation.
FIRE, a First Amendment watchdog, said Florida’s guidance ignored an exception that specifies that materials containing sexual conduct must be removed “for any grade level or age group for which such use is inappropriate or inappropriate.” , a high evaluation expectation.
The organization also says the provision was intended for challenges to books, not to require the proactive removal of other titles. Sexual conduct is a broad term in Florida law that encompasses various sexual acts.
“Some books that reference sex, including many classic literary works, may be appropriate for an 18-year-old high school senior, but not for a ten-year-old fourth grader,” FIRE wrote in a press release. , adding his voice. to the opposition a week before the vote when she learned that the originally proposed training contained language similar to the memo.
That proposal was modified to clarify the distinction.
“We appreciate the adoption of the last-minute amendment that resolves confusing language and advises districts to conduct a thorough review of materials rather than permanently removing them based on a single excerpt,” Florida’s Freedom to Read Project wrote. in a sentence posted on social media. The group has been one of the staunchest critics of the law and state guidelines.
As reported by KeynoteUSA NETWORK-Florida, the controversy over the training review went beyond its content. The Florida Department of Education created a workshop group to help, half of whom were members of Moms for Liberty, the biggest proponents of book removals in public schools.
The move drew criticism from book access advocates and demonstrated the state’s willingness to cater to the conservative group, which has long supported DeSantis.
Advocacy groups still have concerns
FIRE said it was “very pleased” to see the change. He had warned the state of a possible First Amendment lawsuit if that had not happened.
“This change is a victory for Florida students,” Aaron Terr, its public advocacy director, said in an emailed statement. “It should help stop rampant censorship in Florida school libraries, many of which have removed hundreds of classic and contemporary books without evaluating their appropriateness for students.”
Burns said the changes “strengthen the learning environment by ensuring we continue to have great materials.”
But Florida’s Freedom to Read Project still had issues with the confirmed training, and didn’t like that it maintains a slide warning educators to “err on the side of caution” when making book disposal decisions.
Ferrell, in a follow-up phone interview, added that he still doesn’t believe there is enough context in the training presentation slides that cite a pre-existing criminal statute that prevents the distribution of “harmful” materials to minors and warns of serious crimes if is violated. The threshold to meet that standard is high, and any book that meets it also could not be sold in a bookstore to a minor.
But those mentions alarmed and confused educators when the first version of the training was launched last year, contributing to a spike in book removals from school libraries and classrooms.
Data released by the American Library Association in March showed that Florida had more books challenged for removal than any other state in 2023. The group documented nearly 2,700 titles targeted for censorship in Florida.
In total, 4,240 works were selected in school and public libraries in the US in 2023, a significant increase from the then record in 2022 of 2,571 books.
Some counties have removed LGBTQ titles from shelves
Ferrell said the training was also adjusted to make clear that laws focused on regulating “educational materials” do not apply to library books. Some counties, for example, have removed LGBTQ titles following the passage of a law restricting classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.
But it recommended that the state remove the “instructional materials” slides entirely to eliminate “any possibility of confusion or conflation and eliminate the completely irrelevant section of the training.”
Additionally, the revised training references 2024 legislation that DeSantis requested and signed that limits the number of books someone can question if they are not the parent or guardian of a student. Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, said he appreciated some of the changes, but added that the confusion wasn’t caused just by the training slides.
“When the training was first implemented, I heard many media specialists from around the state express concerns not only about the presentation, but also about what was said in those (training) meetings,” he told the Board. State Department of Education on Wednesday.
“And so I want to, again, encourage all of you to come out to the schools to work with us and make sure that the intent of the law is what’s clearly communicated and that there’s not as much confusion.”
This informative content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. KeynoteUSA Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com.
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