State may put onus on Florida educators to police 'frivolous' book challenges
Published in News & Features
Now, DeSantis is saying the intent of the law has been “abused” and says that the number of book challenges should be “very rare.”
“Let’s stop playing games with all of this,” DeSantis said.
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.
DeSantis criticized efforts to challenge “classical books,” saying the state law is not intended to do that.
“If somebody is challenging a book that has been in schools a long time, no that is going to fail,” DeSantis said about what he expects the new law will do. “I think this goes a long way to dealing with some of the bad faith actors.”
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