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A law in Florida is leading to textbooks being removed from school libraries. Now major publishers in the USA are fighting back with a lawsuit.
Florida – A group of major publishers, authors and Parents have sued Florida education authorities over a law that allows parents and residents to restrict access to books in school libraries if they depict or describe “sexual acts.”
The lawsuit, filed by Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins and others, alleges that the state law, passed last year, has led to hundreds of book removals, violating the First Amendment right to free speech.
Access to books with “sexual acts” restricted in school libraries – publishers sue Florida
According to the lawsuit, books that must be removed from school libraries in Florida under House Bill 1069 include: Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple,” Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughter-House Five.”
Banned books will be on display at James Weldon Johnson Park in Jacksonville on September 21. © Joshua Lott/The Washington Post
The lawsuit challenges a section of the law that requires school districts to Buch that “depicts or describes sexual content” or is “pornographic.” One procedure for removing books from school libraries under the law provides that parents can read the disputed passages aloud during a school board meeting, and if the board stops the reading due to the explicit content, the School “cease using the material”.
“There are no books banned in Florida”: Officials say sexual content is not appropriate for schools
Officials in Florida this week called the lawsuit a “ploy.” “There are no books that are banned in Florida,” said Nathalia Medina, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Education. “Sexually explicit material and instructions are not appropriate for schools.” The Bible was also put to the test in Utah a year ago, based on this principle.
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Book bans have long been part of the country’s culture wars, in which school officials, parents and lawmakers argue over how to teach race, history and sexuality in schools. Florida is at the forefront of this conflict, leading the nation in challenges to textbooks, according to a report released in April by Pen America, a nonprofit that advocates for free speech.
Plaintiffs allege that books are not viewed as a whole: “Not remotely obscene”
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Orlando, argues that publishers and authors have a right to read their books, while students have a First Amendment right to “read constitutionally protected books that are free from unconstitutional content restrictions mandated by the State of Florida.”
The lawsuit claims that House Bill 1069 does not consider the book as a whole before removing it for “sexual content,” and does not specify the level of detail at which a book must be removed for describing sexual content. Another problem, the lawsuit says, is the bill’s use of the term “pornographic,” which is vague, and often books described as such are “not remotely obscene,” such as Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” Conversely, many parents in the U.S. complain about books that address LGBT issues and racism.
Fearing the law: teachers close their classroom libraries as a precaution
The lawsuit says the law allows books to be removed before consulting “trained professionals such as teachers or media specialists,” adding that some teachers have closed their classroom libraries for fear of objections, controversy or the risk of losing their teaching licenses.
Earlier, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ office said the state’s Department of Education “does not ban books” and called claims of a book ban a “hoax” or “false narrative.” His office said the law “protects Kinder from indoctrination” and gives parents and residents the opportunity to see the materials their children have access to at school and “the opportunity to complain about inappropriate materials.”
The plaintiff group consists of numerous major publishers in the United States
However, Florida has been facing criticism and lawsuits over removed books since last year. Between July 2021 and December 2023, 3,135 book bans were recorded in Florida, according to PEN America.
The group of plaintiffs challenging parts of the Florida law includes publishers Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing Group, Simon & Schuster and Sourcebooks; the Authors Guild, an organization that advocates for free speech issues; authors including Julia Alvarez, John Green, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jodi Picoult and Angie Thomas; and two parents, Heidi Kellogg and Judith Anne Hayes.
Plaintiffs do not want to overturn the entire law – aim is vague descriptions of criteria
The lawsuit targets officials from the Florida State Board of Education, the Orange County Board of Education and the Volusia County Board of Education. DeSantis, who championed the law restricting books in schools, is not named in the lawsuit.
About the author
Great Javaid is a general assignment reporter and has been working for The Washington Post since 2022. Previously, she worked as a reporter in the live department of The New York Times.
The lawsuit does not seek to overturn the entire law, the complaint states. And the publishers do not want Florida school districts to fail to ensure that school libraries do not carry obscene books. The goal is to reject parts of the law that prohibit content that “describes sexual conduct” and the vague description of the word “pornographic.”
Culture war in the USA: Parents are suing to ensure diverse literature in the classroom
Hayes, the mother of a student in Orange County, said in the lawsuit that she wanted her child to be able to read books like “Love in the Time of Cholera” – a book by Gabriel García Márquez that she said was removed from her child’s classroom – without experiencing any barriers or “stigma associated with reading books that have been falsely branded as ‘pornographic’ or otherwise inappropriate.”
We are currently testing machine translations. This article has been automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on September 1, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com“ was published – as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.
