The Escambia County School Board voted 5-0 to remove hundreds of books without review.
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The books in question come from the Florida Department of Education’s book removal list. This list is made of titles that have been eliminated from schools across the state. Classics such as “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, and “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut are among the 400-plus books.
During a workshop meeting last week, the school board discussed further changes to its challenged books policy.
One of the changes includes requiring the coordinator of media services and media specialists at each school to certify in writing to the superintendent that all media center acquisitions of books, supplemental materials, and reading lists do not contain sexually explicit material.
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The district’s policy on the selection of instructional materials has updated language stating “there shall be no sexually explicit content in instructional and supplemental materials or required reading lists. This does not apply to materials approved by the state Department of Education for required courses in human reproduction.”
“I want to make sure everybody knows we’re not going to have things swinging back in the media center,” said board member Kevin Adams at the July 10 workshop. “Because we five are liable for whatever pornographic stuff is in our libraries.”
The board was in agreement that books reviewed by other Florida districts didn’t need to be up for discussion in Escambia. Adams added that the book review committees may not be necessary since final approval falls on the board, but no changes were made.
There is some flexibility with instructional materials that fall on the removal list but are also required reading for IB, AP, and dual enrollment students. Those titles can be made available with parental consent.
At Tuesday's meeting, a handful of public comments asked the board to reconsider its blanket removal of the books.
“A single parent’s decision should not dictate what is available to all students,” said Melanie Gambill, president of the Escambia PTA.
Linda Fussell, a local advocate and regular voice during the school board public forum, said the impact of removing the books would be “devastating.”
“By removing these books, by becoming more restrictive on students’ reading ability, you risk lower test scores, stifling a love of reading, and negatively impacting students’ mental health,” she said.
Former school board candidate Rich Holzknecht agreed with the board and echoed Adams by saying the board needed to be proactive.
“This is not about an opinion on a single book; this is about the law,” he said. “When the (Florida) Attorney General wrote to the board members of Hillsborough County, he put them on notice. They’re the ones who are going to be held criminally liable for violation of Florida statute.”
