The President of the state chapter of the National Organization for Women is taking issue with purported “classroom censorship” at the hands of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“At Florida N.O.W., we value diversity and freedom of thought. Interacting with members from different backgrounds broadens our perspective and allows us to effectively advocate for you. For those reasons, we condemn DeSantis’s continued attack on classroom censorship. We’re aware that the Florida Board of Education requested all K-12 public schools to identify books in their libraries relating to sex education, social-emotive learning, and diversity,” asserted Debbie Deland Saturday.
Florida’s Department of Education, for its part, asserts that DeSantis has “debunked” the book ban “hoax.” But DeLand isn’t buying it.
“This aggressive request identifies books to ban in upcoming legislation that will censor our education even more. Censoring our classrooms prevents teachers from adequately doing their jobs and stunts the growth of our children. DeSantis’ attack on our classrooms is an attack on our children, and we will not stand for it,” DeLand contends.
“We denounce and loudly condemn any attempt to censor our classrooms. Despite DeSantis’ aggressive book-banning witch hunt, we will continue to fight for everyone’s right to equitable and diverse education–especially our children’s.”
DeSantis held a press conference in recent days, where his aides showed a six-minute video spotlighting “myth” and “fact” on the subject. At that event, he took issue with contentions from the left that his administration is causing books to be purged from Florida classrooms due to potentially objectionable subject matter.
“They can’t defend their positions on the merits. That’s why you have this situation,” DeSantis said in Tampa. “It’s a false narrative in service of trying to use the schools for an inappropriate purpose.”
The DeSantis event spotlighted examples of texts that don’t fit the educational mission of Florida classrooms, in his administration’s view, including including “Flamer” by Mike Curato; “Let’s Talk About It” by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan; and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe.
“The Florida Department of Education does not ban any books. That’s a lie. It’s never been true,” Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said at that event. “The Florida Department of Education has never instructed any district or school to empty or cover bookshelves.”
The Governor and his political allies have struggled with the optics of explaining empty book shelves in school libraries, particularly in Duval County, where a shot of a library largely divested of books went viral. Superintendent Diana Greene decried the “misinformation” weeks after the pictures earned global media coverage.
For its part, the Governor’s Office says that a small number of books were removed for violating standards as part of a larger “stand against pornography and sexual material in the classroom.”
“Of the 23 districts that reported removing materials, the most removed were tied at 19 in Duval and St. Johns Counties — not even close to a whole classroom library. Of the 175 books removed across the state, 164 (94%) were removed from media centers, and 153 (87%) were identified as pornographic, violent, or inappropriate for their grade level.”
PEN America, meanwhile, reports that 566 book bans are in effect in Florida schools, which is the second highest total of any state in the country. Laws “enabling tighter scrutiny and outside monitoring of curricular and book choices in classrooms, coupled with a new prohibition on instruction on certain topics, (have) done what was intended … created a chilling effect on teaching and learning.”
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Gray Rohrer contributed reporting.
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