Palm Beach County parents haven’t submitted objections to any school library books for the past two years. The district is reviewing hundreds of them anyway, after an onerous state directive last month quietly shifted the initiative on book bans to schools and librarians — at a time when they are already dealing with staffing and budget cuts due to under-enrollment.
From classic novels like The Scarlet Letter to nonfiction works delving into sexual health, over 1,800 titles have been flagged as part of a sweeping audit at the School District of Palm Beach County, public records obtained by WLRN show.
It comes after the Florida Department of Education issued a statewide memo urging districts to proactively review their libraries, removing books even before parents object to their content.
Some advocates and former media specialists say these reviews are expensive and time-consuming, diverting resources from instructional time. But non-compliance, the memo explicitly stated, could lead to the withholding of state funding or make a district ineligible for competitive grants.
"It's just an incredibly venal and vile attack on the right and the freedom to read," said Mitch Kaplan, activist and founder of South Florida bookstore Books & Books. "And this is something that is just another step, a step further than what we've been seeing."
As school districts across Florida rush to review their shelves, WLRN looked at Palm Beach County's efforts to comply with the communication — and the effect it is having on staff.
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Just a week before the new mandate, members of the public read sexually explicit passages from books they said could be found on shelves at Palm Beach County schools at a Sept. 16 board meeting.
SDPBC has since launched an intricate, monthslong audit that began with compiling an extensive list of potentially offending books, e-materials and videos.
If a school media specialist has any of these works on their shelves, they must remove them from student access, review them, then write a signed attestation that justifies either keeping or removing them. They are also responsible for independently vetting their own libraries for any other titles that might fall foul of state regulations.
“It will behoove you to thoroughly review the correspondence and understand the gravity of the situation as principals will ultimately be held accountable for their school’s compliance,” Superintendent Mike Burke wrote in a letter to all Palm Beach County principals Sept. 24.
He ended the letter by assuring principals “we will both be held accountable” by the state board.
Former Palm Beach County media specialist Chelsie Blankenship said she left this year for a private school after the political pressure became too overwhelming.
Taking state-mandated trainings and spending hours vetting her library shelves left her suffering mentally and physically, to the point she “just couldn’t do it anymore,” Blankenship said. Her friends who still work as media specialists in the district are feeling the same and worse, she added, in light of this newest crackdown.
“I just think that they are just getting worn down and worn down and worn down,” Blankenship said. “Some of them, they don't have an option to just up and quit. But I'm sure if they did, that that's what they would be doing.”
SDPC spokesperson Steven King said the district doesn’t have an estimate of how many staff hours the review will require or what it may cost. All current media specialists redirected questions to the district.
From 'reactive' to continuous review
For about three years, school districts have been required to adopt policies allowing parents and residents to object to books in school libraries, following a bill signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022.
Districts report a list of their removed and restricted books to the state for compilation every year. The 2025-26 report, released last month, shows nearly 600 titles removed statewide.
But in an email to all superintendents Sept. 23, Florida Commissioner of Education Henry Mack criticized the “reactive review” process. Districts shouldn’t wait for parents to discover explicit material, he said. Instead, they should continuously review their libraries.
Mack gave districts 90 days to audit their libraries and report the findings. “While voluntary, it is a practical sequence I expect districts to execute,” he wrote in an email to principals.
Mack cannot singlehandedly write new laws, but he can investigate perceived noncompliance and report it to the state board. The board could then withhold state funds or declare a district ineligible for competitive grants. Mack threatened districts with both outcomes in his letter.
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This comes as many districts across Florida are already facing budget shortfalls. Palm Beach lost over 6,000 students this school year, according to an 11th day count conducted in August. Declining student numbers impact state funding, which is tied to enrollment.
Schools are feeling the squeeze. The district recently scrapped its media clerk position, saving more than $3.3 million but leading to 76 jobs being eliminated. Media clerks supported the daily operations of school libraries across the district.
“Ask these leaders if they honestly think it is humanly possible to vet school and classroom collections with integrity given the timeline imposed for this task."Retired media specialist Deb Svec
Many large counties, including Palm Beach, Orange, Miami-Dade and Broward, reported removing few or no books from their shelves in the most recent reporting cycle.
For the past two years, Palm Beach County has turned in its “objection report” entirely blank, records obtained by WLRN show.
There were eight objections in 2024. Only one — a book in Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series — was discontinued, because the pages were old, yellow and ripped. In 2023, parents and residents objected to six books. Just Beyond the Grave by Judith Herbst was restricted, to fourth- and fifth-grade access. None were removed entirely.
It doesn't mean Palm Beach County schools haven’t pulled any titles. They can do so at their discretion without going through the formal objection process.
A new process
Under the new state directive, it doesn't matter whether Palm Beach County residents object to a book. The state ordered districts to review any books that have been removed in any county in the state, as well as authors frequently challenged and titles with "known sexual conduct passages."
That means a book targeted in a conservative area like Clay County, which removed or restricted over 250 books last year, would also need to be automatically reviewed in all other counties.
Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, said not all counties hold large public meetings where parents are notified to participate. Some have “weaker” policies that make materials easier to remove, she said.
In Palm Beach County, for example, any objection must first go through two school-level groups before making it to the district and then the school board. But any Clay County complaint goes straight to the superintendent’s office, with the school board making a final decision if necessary. The entire process policy there is four pages long compared to Palm Beach County’s 16.
As directed by the state, Palm Beach is also reviewing titles — about 1,000 of them, by Ferrell’s estimate — that have never been challenged anywhere in the state but that contain references to sexual conduct. Many are nonfiction works delving into topics like pregnancy, abstinence and abortion.
“I cannot emphasize enough that this is beyond normal, standard practice,” Ferrell said. “This is beyond. This is taking time and attention and resources away from students.”
Asking media specialists to sign their names on each decision adds one more level of scrutiny, Ferrell said. In presentation materials, the district has reminded employees of the consequences of violating the state law, which include criminal charges.
It’s unclear exactly how the state directive is being handled differently from district to district, but Ferrell said some other counties are taking a similar approach to Palm Beach. This week, she recorded over 400 removals in Lake County.
In an email to media specialists Oct. 5, Palm Beach County school district employee Stephanie Sunshine noted the master list contained titles challenged in other counties — but was not necessarily a “pull all” list. If a book meets the district’s own policy, Sunshine wrote, that justifies keeping it. But she also advised them to “always be safe and err on the side of caution.”
District staff presented the plan to the Academic Advisory Committee at its Oct. 12 meeting. The committee, which advises the school board and superintendent, may step in to resolve disputes over titles. Multiple members expressed frustration with the process.
Committee member Cynthia Kanai said book removals make her “crazy.” Kanai, who said she spent 36 years in a classroom, recognized some of the restricted titles as ones she used to teach.
“A lot of the things that are being banned really do give kids and teachers an opportunity to have discussions about things that are really fantastic for them,” Kanai said. “For their educational benefit and their maturity overall.”
Not 'humanly possible'
Palm Beach County district and school library employees are now scrambling to audit their libraries. Over 1,830 unique titles are under review, about 70% in high schools. Only about a dozen books are listed at the elementary level.
Certain titles coded as "red" were ordered to be removed Oct. 9, while "yellow" titles were pulled a week later. It's not clear how the district distinguished between the two categories.
It’s also unclear how many of these books could actually be found on library shelves when the review began. Destiny, the district’s online library manager, only allows the user to search by individual school, not districtwide. Books by Stephen King — by far the most-challenged author, with 55 titles under review — are listed as unavailable as of Oct. 19.
Media specialists are also expected to review other books on their shelves, adding more to the lists as necessary. The district will perform unannounced physical and virtual audits at schools each semester.
Deb Svec, a retired media specialist who spent nearly 30 years with the School District of Palm Beach County, said she’s spoken to current librarians about the new development. Media specialists across the state are working under “physically unrealistic demands,” she said.
All data is due by December. The district will use the information to create an end-of-year review finalized in May.
“Ask these leaders if they honestly think it is humanly possible to vet school and classroom collections with integrity given the timeline imposed for this task,” Svec said.
