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Seminole County bans books challenged in other school districts

File photo of Seminole High School. The majority of books banned were pulled from Seminole's public schools not because parents in the district had complained but because other school districts in Central Florida had taken issue with them.
Seminole County Public Schools
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SCPS
File photo of Seminole High School. The majority of books banned were pulled from Seminole's public schools not because parents in the district had complained but because other school districts in Central Florida had taken issue with them.

The Seminole County School District has banned over 30 books so far this school year.

The majority were pulled not because parents in the district had complained, but because other school districts in Central Florida had taken issue with them.

The district says it has been instructed by the state to take extra precaution with any books that have been challenged or banned in other districts.

Titles included John Green’s Looking for Alaska and Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why.

PEN America, an educational nonprofit that tracks the freedom of expression in the U.S., says Florida leads the country in book bans, followed by Texas.

Over 40 percent of all book bans occur in school districts in Florida. Across 33 school districts in the state, PEN America recorded 1,406 book ban cases.

The majority of titles are centered on the narratives of Black, brown and LGBTQ people.

Danielle Prieur covers education in Central Florida.
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