It’s Now a Felony in FL for Teachers to Have Unapproved Books in Classrooms

As though teachers didn’t already have enough to deal with, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill into law prohibiting books that aren’t approved by a librarian or “certified media specialist.”

Teachers in Manatee County caught displaying unapproved books could face felony charges.

In preparation for the new law to go into effect, FL teachers have been removing books from their classrooms.

According to the new law, HB 1467, books must meet a series of standards to be accessible to students. However, with most schools only having one librarian or trained and “certified media specialist” on staff, books are being approved very slowly.

While the proposed requirements for books to be approved appear standard—no pornography, appropriate for age/grade, etc. It is unclear what training the specialists must take from the FL Dept. of Education in order to approve books, and what other types of books could fail to make the cut.

Teachers go to school to learn how to best guide students, are they not qualified to decide what books are appropriate for their classrooms?

FL ranks #2, after TX, in banned books. Prohibiting nearly 600 titles from being distributed.

In addition, because of DeSantis’ controversial political platform, which has included pushing to ban critical race theory, promoting anti-LGBTQ legislature, anti-immigrant legislature, and almost no actionable response to Covid-19, opponents are concerned his problematic values will help shape book requirements.

What do you think of all of this?

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