Florida is No. 1 for book removals and restrictions in public schools for the third year in a row, according to a new report released Wednesday by the national free expression group PEN America.
PEN America, which has filed a lawsuit challenging removals in the state, reported Florida had more than 2,300 titles pulled from campus shelves last school year.
"Anybody who's been paying attention to this knows that a lot of the book-banning tactics are starting in Florida and then are actually influencing how books are banned across the country," said Sabrina Baêta, co-author of the report.
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The group defines "book ban" as any time a book was removed — permanently or pending an investigation — or restricted in public school libraries.
The most targeted book in Florida last year was the classic "A Clockwork Orange," which was removed at least 14 times.
Also in the top 10 was "Wicked," which inspired the famous musical and the popular fantasy romance, "A Court of Mist and Fury."
During the 2023-24 school year, Florida had more than 4,500 instances of book removals, according to PEN America. The year prior, it had more than 1,400.
The current numbers being less than the year before aren't comforting to Baêta.
She says, for example, if books with LGBTQ+ themes are removed one year, they're not getting replaced with other books with LGBTQ+ themes the next.
Advocates against the removals warn that books with LGBTQ+ or racial topics are being disproportionally targeted.
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"What's left on shelves, what's left to ban at this point, what's left to be attacked is really concerning," Baêta said.
The rise of conservative parents' groups like Moms for Liberty and various school library laws caused districts to pull books in large numbers, in many cases, confused by the standards but scared of violating them.
Recently, state officials have begun outright calling on districts to remove certain titles.
Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration takes issue with the term "book ban." Contested books are available in public libraries and stores.
"Over the past year, parents have used their rights to object to pornographic and sexually explicit material they found in school libraries," DeSantis said in a press release last year.
Another group advocating for book access, the Florida Freedom to Read Project, shared data with PEN America for the report. That group emphasizes the data for last school year are still coming in through public records requests, and the number of removals are increasing.
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.
Books have to be taken off shelves within five days of an objection over alleged sexual conduct content or pornographic material and can only be returned after that review.
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Residents without children can also issue challenges, but only one every month. Troves of books have been pulled without challenges.
PEN America 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.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here. This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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