Florida has been leading the nation in book restrictions for public school students, according to recent reports.
Some of the books the Florida Department of Education has said are inappropriate and not permitted on school library shelves include "The Stolen Life," "Tricks," "All the Boys Aren't Blue and Lucky," and more.
Under Florida law, parents of students in a district can challenge a book they consider sexually explicit, pornographic, obscene, or age-inappropriate. A local committee then reviews the material. Parents without kids can also issue challenges, but only one every month.
Critics of removals have also warned about books with LGBTQ+ or racial topics being targeted.
READ MORE: Report: Florida is No. 1 in school book removals and restrictions for third year in a row
According to the free expression group PEN America, Florida is No. 1 for book removals and restrictions in public schools for the third year in a row.
The organization said Hillsborough County Schools removed more than 600 books — the second highest of any district in the country.
But Hillsborough disputes this. It says it has only removed 59, and that other books are under review, but not officially banned.
On "The Florida Roundup," host Tom Hudson got different perspectives from PEN America Florida Program Coordinator Sophia Brown and the Hillsborough County Chapter of Moms for Liberty, Julie Gebhards.
For PEN America, Brown said they define a book ban as prohibiting access to a book. The organization is part of a federal lawsuit against the Escambia County School Board's mass book removal practices, while also supporting efforts to halt similar actions across Florida.
"There are times in places where governments have banned books from public circulation, but what we are seeing right now in the U.S. and Florida is that school districts are removing books, usually to appeal to state leaders or particular vocal community leaders," Brown said.
Brown said this often happens without following the "long-established procedures for reviewing books."
"Meaning that books are also often disappeared without clear reasons. Books can also be suspended for review indefinitely, but regardless of how you look at it, if a person who once had access to a book no longer can, that is a ban," Brown added.
Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration takes issue with the term "book ban" as contested books are available in public libraries and stores.
According to PEN America, for the 2024-25 academic year, over 6,000 books were banned nationwide in schools, and about 1/3 came from Florida. This is more than 2,300 titles.
"But as a free speech organization, we say there are no upsides to banning books ever," Brown said.
READ MORE: Escambia School Board's 'privilege' fight in book removal case continues
Brown said that librarians are trained professionals who are there to curate appropriate collections for children of all ages, interests, and reading levels. It's called the Miller Test, which dates back to 1973 and uses points like community standards to decide if material is obscene.
But parent Julie Gebhards with the Hillsborough County Chapter of Moms for Liberty believes the law was intended for adults in a public setting, and school libraries aren't the same.
"The Miller test doesn't focus on what's harmful to children," she added, describing how it doesn't say you cannot have explicit sex scenes in books.
Gebhards thinks a potential solution apart from librarians could be having parents do a rating system from one to five, and if it has a five, to put it into a different section. She doesn't imagine what the educational benefit of having explicit scenes in books could be.
She also believes people need to take parental rights into consideration.
"We want that freedom. We don't want you taking that away from us by exposing our own children to things apart from our consent," Gebhards said. "That is what liberty is, not the government forcing things down our children's throats."
She said that the presence of an inappropriate library book in a school library is a violation of her parental rights.
This story was compiled from interviews conducted by Tom Hudson for "The Florida Roundup." WUSF's Douglas Soule also contributed to this report.
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