While a Florida school district finds itself in the midst of a recent federal lawsuit regarding its book banning, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is seeking to clear up much of the noise surrounding which books are under scrutiny and which are not.
"Over the past year, parents have used their rights to object to pornographic and sexually explicit material they found in school libraries," DeSantis said in a statement. "We also know that some people have abused this process in an effort to score cheap political points. Today, I am calling on the Legislature to make necessary adjustments so that we can prevent abuses in the objection process and ensure that districts aren't overwhelmed by frivolous challenges."
Speaking at press conference in Orlando this week, DeSantis took issue with what he called "phony narratives" regarding book banning in the Sunshine State and the goal of his initiative is to "empower parents" with information regarding those books with adult content.
"Parents in Florida have a right to send their kids to school knowing that they're going to be educated but not indoctrinated. And so we've provided some very robust protections for the rights of parents to direct the education classrooms," DeSantis said.
DeSantis pointed out that many "bad actors" are just trying to "intentionally depriving students of rightful education by politicizing this process."
The governor cited recent incidents of some activists trying to ban the Bible, "Johnny Appleseed" books and "The Giver."
"So now what we've seen is you have seen activists that will go and just challenge almost anything that's not appropriate to be happening. Hijacking this process is not something that we want to encourage in any way. And it's been from different motivations," DeSantis added.
The Florida Department of Education has sought to clarify the process by limiting overzealous book challenges while attempting to honor parent objections.
Florida Commission of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. said "I am proud to stand with Governor DeSantis to ensure that Florida's academic landscape remains rigorous and comprehensive and provides students with age-appropriate materials to help them achieve the highest academic success."
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