Book removal

The state had more than 2,300 titles taken off shelves last school year, according to data released by PEN America, an organization fighting against the law enabling book challenges.

When a junior at an Orange County public high school in Florida visited the school library to check out a copy of “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, it wasn’t in its Dewey decimal system-assigned location. It turns out the title had been removed from the library’s shelves because of a complaint, and in compliance with Florida House Bill 1069, it had been removed from the library indefinitely.

Escambia County has been a battleground in recent years as school districts in various parts of Florida have removed or restricted access to books.

GOP legislators say the bill would protect children from harmful content. Critics argue it would escalate challenges of books in schools.

The director of Fort Lauderdale's Stonewall National Museum & Archives, housing the country's largest lending library of LGBTQ literature, talks to WLRN about the importance of the decades-old institution at a time when state government is restricting education.

Raegan Miller said local school officials' process to remove Amanda Gorman's poem, along with several books, lacked transparency and amounted to censorship.

A new report from the American Library Association says attempted book bannings and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, setting a record in 2022.

The House Education Quality Subcommittee voted 13-5 along party lines to support the measure, with sponsor Stan McClain, R-Ocala, pushing back against opponents who characterized it as enabling book bans.

Broward school libraries will remove a sexually explicit teen graphic novel that Gov. Ron DeSantis administration categorized as “pornography.”