Parents of Florida public school students sued the state board of education Thursday, June 6 over a state law that makes it easier to ban books.
One of the plaintiffs, Stephana Ferrell, is a mom of two Central Florida kids and director of the Florida Freedom to Read Project.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern Florida, claims Florida parents’ First Amendment rights were violated, when HB 1069 was implemented.
The Florida law, which took effect in 2023, requires each school board in Florida to have a formal policy in place for challenging books. It also made it easier to challenge any book that is “pornagraphic” or depicts sexual activity.
The lawsuit argues this law favors parents who want books banned from school and library bookshelves, while the plaintiffs don’t have the right under the law to have book bans reviewed and potentially overturned.
According to PEN America, Florida continues to lead the country in book bans in 2024, with 3,135 bans in place across 11 school districts.
In a statement, Julia Friedland, a spokesperson for the DeSantis administration said, “there are no books banned in Florida. However, sexually explicit material and instruction are not suitable for classrooms."
The governor himself pushed for a rewriting of the law through a separate bill, HB 1285, to limit the number of challenges residents who don’t have children in a school district can make.
