Book Removals

Schools Superintendent Van Ayres said he trusts his media specialists and will have inappropriate materials yanked from shelves ahead of the 2025-26 school year.

Florida lawmakers voted to extend the regular session to June 6 in order to complete the budget and related items. But they will take at least a week off before returning to Tallahassee.

Republicans say the bill would keep age-inappropriate books off school shelves. Opponents warn it would dramatically boost book removals in Florida — again.

According to PEN America, Florida has led the nation in book removals for the past two years.

Most on the American Library Association's list include explicit descriptions of sexual enounters, along with LGBTQ+ themes and characters, sexual abuse, and references to drug addiction, racism and slavery.

Under the legislation, school district committees reviewing a challenged book wouldn’t be able to consider literary or artistic merit when deciding to remove it.

GOP legislators say the bill would protect children from harmful content. Critics argue it would escalate challenges of books in schools.

The parents from St. Johns and Orange counties filed a notice of appeal last week after U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor in January sided with the State Board of Education and dismissed their lawsuit.

It is one of a series of lawsuits stemming from a 2023 education law and related decisions by districts to remove from library shelves or restrict access to books deemed “pornographic” or describing “sexual conduct.”

They include children's access to social media and lawsuits filed by college students who say they should receive refunds for money they paid while campuses were shut down due to COVID-19.

Attorneys for several publishing companies, authors and other plaintiffs filed a document that, in part, disputed a state position that selection of school library books is “government speech” and, as a result, is not subject to the First Amendment.

"The Florida Roundup" talked with reporters from across the state on topics including the hurricanes and how South Florida turning red affected the 2024 elections.