Three parents of children attending Florida public schools filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Florida Board of Education on Thursday, claiming that a 2023 education law discriminates against parents who oppose book bans and censorship.
The legislation in question (HB 1069) requires local school boards to adopt policies regarding objections by parents to the use of specific material, but these parents contend that the law “only provides a mechanism for a parent to object to the affirmative use of material; it does not provide a mechanism for a parent to object to the lack of use or discontinued use of material.”
Florida saw more books challenged for removal than any other state last year, according to data released by the American Library Association.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court Northern Division of Florida by:
- Nancy Tray, a St. Johns County resident and parent of three students in the St. John’s School District;
- Anne Watts Tressler, a St. Johns County resident and parent of two students in the St. Johns School District; and
- Stephana Ferrell, an Orange County resident and parent of two children who attend Orange County Public Schools.
The defendants are the Florida Board of Education, along with the chair, vice chair, and all individual members of that body as well as Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr.
“The law is an attempt to steal important decisions away from parents and allows those with a strong desire to withhold critical information on a variety of age-relevant topics to decide what books our kids have access to,” Ferrell said in a press release. “The State of Florida should not be able to discriminate against the voices of parents they disagree with — I deserve an equal voice in my child’s education as any other parent.”
As noted in the lawsuit, the bill sponsor, Ocala Republican Stan McClain, acknowledged on the floor of the House when the bill was being debated that the legislation would treat parents differently depending on whether they objected to or supported the availability of school materials.
Gainesville Democratic Rep. Yvonne Hinson remarked to McClain that there was “a method on several pages of your bill for a parent to complain about a book. But is there a method for the other 99% of the parents to request the book?”
McClain said there was not, and that he would not consider including such a method.
‘Shut Up!’
The lawsuit goes into detail describing how Ferrell, the Orange County mother, was unsuccessful in fighting the removal of a book called “Shut Up!” by Marilyn Reynolds at Timber Creek High School, removed in the summer of 2023 due to the objection of a single parent.
Ferrell objected to the removal of that title, but was informed on Aug. 30, 2023, that the district had rejected her objection because “[o]nly the challenger can appeal the determination of the School or District to not remove the book to the board. You do not have the standing to file with this board. … The statute does not expressly give the authority to parents to challenge a removal of a book.”
Ferrell sought access to the state review process and submitted her objection to the State Review Liaison on Sept. 26, 2023. She finally received a response on Feb. 27, 2024, informing her that “the Department has received multiple requests for the Appointment of a Special Magistrate. You will receive a response in writing in the near future.”
The very next day, the department wrote to Ferrell that “[a] special magistrate is not available to contest a district’s decision to remove material or for the purpose of providing clarification on the law. As such, your request has been dismissed.”
The lawsuit goes on to say: “Parent Ferrell’s request was dismissed because she holds the State’s disfavored view.”
“Florida has become a national leader in book banning, garnering mass attention for the unprecedented number of books that have been removed from our public schools,” said Samantha Past, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida, one of three law firms representing the parents (along with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Democracy Forward Foundation).
“A review process that is available only to parents with certain viewpoints violates the First Amendment. Denying parents an appropriate avenue to challenge censorship is undemocratic, and stifling viewpoints the state disagrees with is unlawful. Ultimately, these actions perpetuate the statewide attack on members of the Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ communities in an attempt to erase them from our history books,” Past continued.
2,700 books
Nearly 2,700 books were targeted for restriction or removal in Florida schools and libraries in 2023, according to the American Library Association in a report issued in March. That was 1,200 more than the state with the second-most challenges, Texas.
Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged that giving parents the right to object to books and other materials in public schools has led to confusion at school districts throughout the state, but he declined to criticize state policy.
“If you have a kid in school, OK. But if you’re somebody who doesn’t have a kid in school and you’re going to object to 100 books, no, I don’t think that that’s appropriate,” he said.
DeSantis earlier this year signed into law a bill that caps the number of books that individuals who don’t have children in Florida’s public-school systems at one per month. The bill’s original language would have charged a $100 fee for a person who brought an unsuccessful challenge, but that was stripped from the final legislation.
Sydney Booker, the communications director with the Florida Department of Education, responded to the lawsuit by issuing this statement: “There are no books banned in Florida. However, sexually explicit material and instruction are not suitable for classrooms.”
–Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
Atwp says
Good to see people stand for their rights. We all need to stand for our rights.
JOE D says
Of all the issues affecting the safety and well-being of our school students: gun violence, drug abuse, bullying, low standardized test scores, mental illness and depression, it just ANGERS me as the grandfather of 3 young boys, that so much time, energy, and taxpayers MONEY has been WASTED on this book banning issue for Florida public schools and libraries.
If YOU don’t want your child exposed to a particular THEME in a book, then you as a PARENT should be able to say, “I would like to restrict MY CHILD’S access to those materials.”
However YOU should not have the right to restrict MY children ( or grandchildren in my case), from having access to those materials, if I don’t agree.
Florida School Boards (and Flagler County in particular) have become a NATIONAL laughing stock over this issue, as teachers exit Florida public school classrooms due to low teacher pay, restricting teaching policy, and SEVERE limitation of even GENERAL supportive counseling to students adjusting to childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. SOMETIMES the school is the ONLY safe place children can get support they are FREQUENTLY lacking at home. I can testify to that as a retired Family and Child Psychiatric Nurse Therapist for 10+ years.
I hope (since the lawsuit was filed in FEDERAL Court, and not the Florida State Courts) that this Parental APPEALS process for banned books is successful …so we can end this Librarian and Teacher WITCH HUNT.
JW says
Book banning by a few parents without other parents being able to a have a say in keeping books is a form dictatorship!
We love to brag about our democracy in America?
Just to remind you about the quote by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1905:
“”EITHER THE UNITED STATES WILL DESTROY IGNORANCE or IGNORANCE WILL DESTROY THE UNITED STATES”
It is all about education; you can’t have enough; you learn from your mistakes whatever they are. The dark side of American cheerfulness is the undercurrent of insecurity and depression and this drives the book banning too!
Food for THOUGHT!
Deborah Coffey says
This is such good news….It has become really difficult to fight for real freedoms in Florida and throughout the country.
endangered species says
Good luck parents, ron and the gop stacked the courts already so good luck finding a unbiased judge to fairly trail the case. Hope they have lots of money cause thats usually what wins in court. Ban ron not books! hes been successful at defunding schools, charging teachers with crimes, pushing whitewashed alternative history, banning books, eliminating kids food programs, child healthcare programs , income support programs, but somehow gop supporters say their Christians and love people but they back terrorist for leaders interesting….
Laurel says
So, are you gonna tell me that librarians…librarians (!)… are going to put 2,700 pornographic books in school libraries? This is ridiculous beyond belief. These book banners have some serious mental issues, and they are projecting their mental issues on the whole of the population. We need to stop giving them any time at all.
How much longer do we have to put up with DeSantis and his dystopian hopes for Florida?
Just a thought says
And they call the Democrats the cancel culture. Republicans have truly canceled history. They everything they could to stop teaching slavery and they are the first to ban books since Hitler came into power.
JonQPublik says
Spot on. Thank you.
Pogo says
@Welcome Ron’s Floridastan
Home of Trump’s conservative senior citizen discount buffet and gun show, “Jesus bless these guns and their nuts…”
https://www.google.com/search?q=bread+and+circuses
Jim says
Well, I think this is just great for Florida. DeSantis and his fellow Nazis were so keen on letting “parents” get rid of any and all books that they personally thought were “bad” that they unleashed many of the local idiots on the school systems and now our state leads the country in banned books. Sorry! According to Mr. Sydney Booker, the communications director with the Florida Department of Education, “There are no books banned in Florida. However, sexually explicit material and instruction are not suitable for classrooms.”. So for anyone to say that a book cannot be in a Florida school library or classroom, “banned” is the wrong word. I won’t waste my time even trying to state the idiocy of that statement….
And, in “fixing” the law, there are no provisions for any parent to object to the banning of a book! The only way I can interpret this is that if you’re a Nazi or a Fascist who wants books gone out of the school, well, the state of Florida is 100% with you! But if you object to that, you have no standing according to the statute.
We’re in a replay of 1930’s Germany for those who are watching. Book banning (and burning – we’ll get there….) was big then. The Far Right’s race to the bottom will end up costing all of us our basic rights and there are just too many people who don’t see it coming.
Larry says
Well said, vote against book ban politicians (guess what party that would be)
Larry says
VOTE in November this is not just a Floriduh issue
Laurel says
F-L-O-R-I-D-A
Laurel says
Unfortunately, Fox Entertainment has many folks intoxicated. The hangover may be coming, and it will be a long one.