Education officials in Florida sued over a spate of book removals across the state
Florida governor Ron DeSantis speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16th, 2024. He signed legislation which permitted citizens to object to the availability of books they deemed objectionable in school libraries. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesFlorida has led the way in the practice of removing certain books deemed objectionable from its school libraries.
The purge began when Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis, who may well file 2024 as the year in which he could not catch a break, signed legislation which permitted citizens to object to the availability of books they deemed objectionable in school libraries. The offending text would then be removed until such a time as a regulatory board reviewed and decided on its suitability.
But it’s a decision that has led to unfilled real estate on many school libraries. Pen America reported that a staggering 1,600 books have been “banned” or withdrawn in Escambia County alone, including five dictionaries, the Guinness Book of World Records, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not and biographies of Oprah Winfrey and supreme court justice Thurgood Marshall. Some 23 Stephen King novels are gone, along with works of fiction by authors ranging from Cormac McCarthy to James Patterson.
Friedman is a bibliophile and argues that his objections are founded in his determination that “all lessons in all schools” will “respect innocence”. One member of the school board has publicly taken his side, maintaining that every book banned was “filthy, filthy pornography” and pointing out that “people who tell you different have not read the books, period”.
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