DeSantis appears to endorse legislation that would penalize frivolous schoolbook challenges

Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared Thursday to acknowledge that giving parents the right to object to books and other materials in public schools has led to confusion amid sweeping book challenges that have disrupted school systems throughout the state.

The governor didn’t blame the policy itself, however. He blamed teachers and school administrators for fomenting confusion to make political points; “the news media” for, in his view, inaccurately reporting on book bans; as well as people without children in school districts who have challenged scores of books.

He appeared to endorse pending legislation that would penalize frivolous book challenges and said his state Department of Education would look into imposing controls over districts and teachers.

That bill, by Republican Dana Trabulsy of St. Lucie County, would impose a $100 “processing fee” on subsequent challenges filed by anyone who’s already filed five unmerited challenges in a district where he or she doesn’t have a child enrolled. The money would be refundable if the complaint pans out.

“Lets’ not let people try to hijack the process,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Orlando.

“We don’t have any time for your political agenda — you know, if you’re saying that no books should be available. You know, that’s on you. You are acting inappropriately. You are not acting in a professional manner and there should be consequences if you’re going to do that,” DeSantis added.

“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.

As in the past, DeSantis insisted it’s a “hoax” that Florida is banning books.

However, Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, insisted in a written statement that the threat is real.

“By the governor’s own admission, his endorsement and enabling of fringe-minority groups has allowed for ’bad actors’ that have created a state where fear takes the front seat. He has allowed groups that are not representative of our state to overshadow what the real issues are,” Spar said.

Katie Blankenship, director of PEN America’s Florida office, said in response to DeSantis’ comments Thursday on book bans: “Governor DeSantis’ denial that Florida is banning books, and his shifting blame to local school boards and Floridians, is a blatant attempt to avoid responsibility for the significant and ongoing harm caused by statutes that he championed. But there is one thing we can agree on: book banning has gone too far, and limiting challenges is a good first step toward protecting Florida’s libraries.”

‘Explicit content’

Since 2022, DeSantis has signed legislation requiring that discussions in public schools of sexism, slavery, racial oppression, discrimination and segregation be done in an “age-appropriate manner and in such a way that does not indoctrinate or persuade students to a certain point of view that is inconsistent with the principles of individual freedom.”

Another law requires that any books objected to as pornographic or containing “sexual content” be removed within five days of an objection and remain unavailable to students until the objection is resolved.

The result has been myriad challenges to books and their removal from library and classroom shelves pending review. PEN America, the international writers’ group, has reported that Florida accounted for 1,406 book removals between July 2022 and June 2023, 40% of the national figure.

The PEN report identified 50 organizations that have mounted book challenges, including Moms for Liberty, a DeSantis-endorsed group that has run school board candidates, “sometimes using provocative rhetoric about ‘porn in schools’ and ‘indoctrination.’ These advocacy groups have stoked public anxiety regarding the types of books students can access in classrooms and school libraries.”

DeSantis kept to that rhetoric himself during his news conference, which also featured members of Moms for Liberty, which is labeled an “extremist group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

As he’s done in the past, the governor opened the event by showing a short video featuring some of the books to which he objects, including “Gender Queer” by Miah Kobabe; “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson; “Flamer” by Mike Curato; and “Let’s Talk About It” by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan, which feature graphic descriptions of sex and LGBTQ content.

A link to the video on the governor’s office website includes the disclaimer, written in red all-caps, warning: “Explicit content not suitable for children.”

‘This smut’

Those are the types of books the state is targeting, DeSantis insisted. Other books frequently cited, including ones about Anne Frank, Roberto Clemente, and Hank Aaron, are on the state’s recommended list, he said. However, both baseball books were unavailable for students for months in Duval County, pending reviews.

“We obviously have to give parents the ability to be able to ensure that this smut doesn’t get into their schools,” the governor said.

“I don’t know why we even got to this point where people would want to inject this into the schools. Unfortunately, it’s happening, and I think a lot in the past four or five years there’s been a real great awakening across this country about some of the things that are going on in public schools.”

Alicia Farrant, elected to the Orange County School Board in 2022 as a Moms for Liberty candidate, blamed “the media and extreme left-wing groups” for fomenting misinformation.

“This book ban hoax is nothing more than political propaganda designed to bring confusion and division. What we are seeing here in our country is actually a nation that is losing its morals and turning its back on God, perverting the innocence of children, pushing sex, perversion, and inappropriate content younger and younger,” Farrant said.

“This battle is between good and evil that is targeting our children. And I believe the only way to steer us back is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven and I will heal their land.” (She paraphrased the verse.)

‘So much good work’

Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. accused some school districts of “trying to politicize this issue,” accusing the Hillsborough County district of bowdlerizing “Romeo and Juliet” because of its sexual content. His department intervened to clarify that the full work was allowed.

“So much good work, great work, is being done in literacy around the state and that’s not talked about because the media is busy talking about book banning,” Diaz said.

Of Trabulsy’s legislation, DeSantis said: “So, I think the Legislature’s interested in limiting what the number of challenges you can do and maybe making it contingent on whether you actually have kids in school or not.

“You know, on the one hand, I think that does make sense. On the other hand, you know, people that don’t have kids in school pay taxes to support the school system, so the citizens do have an interest in this. So, I’m not sure you can say they can’t do it at all. But I think you can just limit it,” he continued.

“And then, what you can also do is, if you object to, like, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ or Hank Aaron, that obviously is a frivolous objection — those books should be in school — then maybe after one or two frivolous objections you have to pay a fine, because you’re putting people to go through all this.

“So, we’re toying with a lot of things in terms of that process,” he said.

DeSantis also suggested going after “somebody within the school system that’s doing something for political purposes.”

‘That’s a lie’

He mentioned teachers in Manatee County who used paper sheets to cover in-class libraries until they could be vetted.

“That’s a lie. That is not true. That is performative nonsense. If you want to do that on your own time, fine, but don’t bring that to the classroom and subject our kids to that nonsense,” he said.

Union officials, however, argued that teachers acted in an abundance of caution given that they might face criminal charges by exposing their students to disfavored materials, as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. Other critics argue the laws are vaguely written and encourage self-censorship.

DeSantis also shifted the blame from his administration to the school districts.

“The state of Florida is not mandating that books are taken out or not from circulation. Even those books, it’s got to be age- or developmentally appropriate. But ultimately, the people in the school system are going to make those final decisions,” he said.

“So, you may have school districts that make decisions that are not mandated by state law in any way. Maybe they are the wrong decisions. That may happen. We’re just want to make sure that we’re not just trying to incentivize frivolous objections, or any kind of games being played, and let people know: If you’re saying that you want to take something out of circulation from being in a middle school classroom, that’s not a frivolous thing. I mean, that’s a significant thing.”