TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Three parents sued Florida’s top education officials Thursday, claiming that the state is discriminating against parents who want to oppose books being removed from local schools by not giving them a way to do so.
Filed in federal court in Tallahassee, the lawsuit against the state Board of Education and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. is the latest legal challenge to policies pushed by Florida conservatives, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, regulating what students are learning in schools, particularly surrounding race and sexuality.
Breaking it down: The lawsuit targets how Florida’s education department is carrying out pieces a sweeping 2023 education law that, among other things, expanded policies surrounding local book challenges. Under this law, books facing objections for being pornographic, harmful to minors, or describing or depicting sexual activity must be pulled within five days and remain out of circulation for the duration of the challenge. That law prompted a national outcry after local schools received hundreds of challenges to a wide range of books, sparking reviews into Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “And Tango Makes Three,” a kids book about a penguin family with two dads.
The law also created an appeals process for parents who disagree with how a school board rules on a book review, which is the subject of this latest legal challenge.
The group suing contends that this policy, as executed by the state, excludes parents “opposed to censorship” because only books local officials deny removing can be appealed. One of the parents, Stephana Ferrell, from Orange County, attempted to appeal the local school district’s decision to remove “Shut Up!” by Marilyn Robinson to the state yet was ultimately told that “a special magistrate is not available to contest a district’s decision to remove material.”
As such, the parents, represented by Democracy Forward, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, contend the policy is “not viewpoint neutral” and a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments covering viewpoint discrimination. The lawsuit is asking a judge to permanently stop Florida from using the state review process.
“This law is an attempt to steal important decisions away from parents and allows those with a strong desire to withhold critical information on a variety of age-relevant topics to decide what books our kids have access to,” Ferrell, who is a cofounder of the advocacy group Florida Freedom to Read Project, said in a statement.
Familiar fight: State officials including DeSantis have downplayed accusations that the state is “banning” books and label the claims as a “hoax.” DeSantis and other conservatives argue the law is meant to target books that broach sensitive topics like sexuality and gender orientation — such as “Gender Queer: A Memoir” for showing sex acts and “Flamer,” which depicts young boys performing sexual acts at a summer camp.
To that end, Diaz at one event alongside DeSantis seized on Ferrell’s fight in Orange County, labeling her as an “activist” seeking to put a “sexually graphic book” on the shelves.
“It’s not going to happen under the watch of this governor,” Diaz said at the event in February.
Still, lawmakers earlier this year once again amended state book challenge laws by limiting the amount of book challenges residents who don’t have children attending school can file.
from Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories https://ift.tt/sGTxIeV
