Florida book bans: closer to home than you think

Ah Spr Att

AYAL

Contributing Writer

Empty shelves. Closed libraries. Confused teachers. Worried librarians. All of these are the effects of banning books. On March 8, 2022, the Florida Senate passed the “Parental Rights in Education” bill which was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis on March 28. The Parental Rights in Education Act, quickly dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay,’’ law stops children in kindergarten to third grade from being taught about sexual orientation or gender identity. In older grades, these topics must be delivered in an “age-appropriate” way, and only “in accordance with state standards.” This act sparked confusion, anger, and protests almost instantly as books were taken off of shelves and the LGBTQ+ community suddenly had no place to read or learn about people like them.

The piece of legislation, along with many others, has contributed to the problem of banned books. Images of classrooms with bare shelves circulated the internet. Teachers taught “on eggshells” said Jonathan Friedman, PEN America’s director of Free Ex - pression and Education programs.

Lisa Green, an English teacher and director of the Writing Center at Masters shared her opinion on the book bannings.

“I think it’s terrifying,” she said, “The purported reason for this is to protect kids. But what is really going on as it is, is people sort of jockeying for political power, and I think kids are being used.”

While Masters is a school that doesn’t experience book bannings, we are still affected, according to Masters librarian Jillian McCoy.“We’re all citizens of the United States,” McCoy said, set in the 1830’s on a sugar plantation in Barbados, follows the journey of a young enslaved person named Wash. The book does not shy away from “banned” topics such as slavery and the violence that occurred because of it, self-harm, and racism. “I got some pushback last year,” Green said, “Not so much about the fact that the book addresses slavery but because of the violence.” However, as she explained to her class before teaching the book, the violence is necessary to tell an accurate story of the time.

“and when state governments start attacking the rights of their citizens to access information that they need, that’s concerning.”

One way of pushing back against book bannings is to learn about them, gain information, and even read them. This year, Green’s ninth grade English class is reading the novel “Washington Black”, by Esi Edugyan. “Washington Black”,

In addition to reading and celebrating these books, McCoy and the rest of the library staff have put together a library policy to help make decisions about what to put on our school’s shelves. “It just helps clarify what the library’s priorities are,” McCoy said. Part of that policy also included a materials reconsideration policy, McCoy explained. If someone were to challenge a book, the policy would enable the library to consider that person’s perspective why they felt that the material should be removed from library shelves. While this portion of the policy has not been put into action yet, it is important to highlight the tools that Masters has put in place to keep our resources open and our shelves full.