Are Florida’s Book Laws Unfair?
Joshua Rothhaas, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Florida has more books banned than any other state, with more than 3000 books banned. This is partially caused by laws signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis leading up to his election, where he campaigned hard on parental rights in education. Some of these laws have been rolled back following his dropping out from the presidential election.
One such law allowed any adult, even those without children, to challenge as many books as they wanted, and the law's vagueness meant that almost every book challenged was banned. And while anyone could easily challenge a book, the process for parents to argue against book challenges was inconsistent at best. One person challenged 40 books in one week. Recently the number of books that can be objected to by a non-parent was capped to one a month, but there is still no way to challenge a removal.
The rollback of the law has been blamed on activists who abuse these rights. One activist, Chaz Stevens, campaigned against the vague nature of the law by challenging books like the Bible, dictionaries, and thesauruses.
“I’m an agitator,” Stevens said in an article for AP News. “I know my role in this.”
There is also no way to request a book, as the ability to request a book to be added to a school’s library is not mentioned on the bill. The bill's sponsor, Republican Stan McClain has stated that he will not consider adding a method for parents to request books.
Ellen Hopkins, an author whose books have been banned more than 227 times across the country, feels strongly about the book bans.
“As for parental rights, parents have always had the ability to counsel their own children’s reading,” Hopkins said in an interview for the ACLU. “But no one has the right to decide for my kids or yours what they can or can’t read. For local governments to decide otherwise is a travesty.”
Her books “Tricks”, “Crank”, and “Identical” have received praise from readers for helping people through dark times in their life.
Last year, a lawsuit was filed against the Florida Board of Education by three Florida parents: Nancy Tray, Anne Watts Tressler, and Stephana Ferrel.
“A review process that is available only to parents with certain viewpoints violates the First Amendment,” one of their attorneys Samantha Past said. “Denying parents an appropriate avenue to challenge censorship is undemocratic, and stifling viewpoints the state disagrees with is unlawful.”
They’re not the only ones to file lawsuits however, as major publishers such as Penguin Random House, and Simon and Schuster, have also sued the Florida Board of Education on the grounds of free speech. However, the only change that has been made was created to stop activists from abusing the system to protest it, according to Gov. DeSantis.