Parents' groups rise up against school book bans in Florida
MIAMI — When Miami-Dade County Schools restricted Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem and other titles only to middle school students in a K-8 school, Lissette Fernandez, a parent, was “completely taken aback.”
In May, a parent of two students at Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes challenged five titles: The ABCs of Black History, Cuban Kids, Countries in the News: Cuba, Love to Langston and Gorman’s poem, The Hill We Climb, recited at President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021. She claimed they included references of critical race theory, “indirect hate messages,” gender ideology and indoctrination.
To have one parent’s complaint lead to Gorman’s poem, Cuban Kids, The ABCs of Black History and Love to Langston being barred from the elementary school shelves — even after the parent admitted to not having read the whole poem or books — “was appalling. I felt it was time to start speaking out,” said Fernandez.
One month later, in June, she co-founded Moms for Libros, one of several local parent groups that have popped up in the past year or two to push back on book bans — often joining forces with national and Florida-based organizations such as the Florida Freedom to Read Project to ensure access to books and reading materials. On Wednesday, BannedBooksUSA.org launched to battle the rising number of challenges across Florida.
The coalitions have homed in on Moms for Liberty, a Gov. Ron DeSantis-linked group founded in Florida that has made book bans a big part of their agenda. As part of its tactics, the group encourages its members to appear at school board meetings and read the “worst” part of a book to provoke a board member to cut them off, a strategy that can lead to the book being temporarily removed, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/10/17/parents-groups-rise-up-against-school-book-bans-in-florida/
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