Parents, students and educators with Orange County Schools are speaking out against more books being pulled from school shelves.
The most recent removals were from a list of over 50 books that the Florida Department of Education condemned at their June 4 meeting as “pornographic.”
Stephana Ferrell is the director of the Florida Freedom to Read Project and a mom of two in Orange County Schools. She said the books were removed despite book review committees having deemed several of the books appropriate for high schoolers.
“We are very concerned that there's not a lot of guidance around what is required by the law,” said Ferrell. “Why? Why is the state deciding that we should ignore our process, ignore our committee reviews, and just immediately remove books now, because that's not what the law says?”
At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Ferrell will present a letter to the board asking for the books to be replaced – for now – and for the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee to weigh in on whether or not these actions are lawful.
She said committees are a crucial part of the Florida law governing the process of book challenges and removals that took effect in 2023.
“We're going to ask the school board to kind of join our effort to get the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee, which has representatives from both the Florida House and Florida Senate, to call a hearing and to review the law and review what the State Board of Education has asked our districts to do and determine whether or not that was lawful,” said Ferrell.
Osceola and Hillsborough County Schools have also pre-emptively removed some of the books from the list.
Governor Ron DeSantis and other supporters of these policies say young children should not be exposed to age-inappropriate content at schools.
Here’s the list of over 50 books that the DOE has recommended removing:
- “Lucky” by Alice Sebold
- “Lullaby” by Chuck Palahniuk
- “Man O’ War” by Cory McCarthy
- “Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl” by Brianna R. Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum
- “One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston
- “Push” by Sapphire
- “Rant” by Chuck Palahniuk
- “Red Hood” by Elana K. Arnold
- “A Sin Such as This” by Ellen Hopkins
- “Skin and Bones” by Sherry Shahan
- “Sold” by Patricia McCormick
- “A Stolen Life” by Jaycee Dugard
- “Storm and Fury: Harbinger Book I” by Jennifer L. Armentrout
- “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson
- “This is Kind of an Epic Love Story” by Kacen Callender
- “Tilt” by Emma Pattee
- “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins
- “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen
- “What Girls Are Made Of” by Elana K. Arnold
- “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire
- “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami
- “Yolo” by Lauren Myracle
- “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson
- “And They Lived” by Steven Salvatore
- “All Your Perfects” by Colleen Hoover
- “American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis
- “Anatomy of a Boyfriend” by Daria Snadowsky
- “Anatomy of a Single Girl” by Daria Snadowsky
- “Beautiful Disaster” by Jamie McGuire
- “Beautiful” by Amy Reed
- “Breathless” by Jennifer Niven
- “Call Me By Your Name” by Andre Aciman
- “Choke” by Chuck Palahniuk
- “A Clash of Kings” by George R.R. Martin
- “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess
- “A Court of Frost and Starlight” by Sarah J. Maas
- “A Court of Mist and Fury” by Sarah J. Maas
- “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas
- “A Court of Silver Flames” by Sarah J. Maas
- “The Crown of Gilded Bones: A Blood and Ash Novel, Book 3” Jennifer L. Armentrout
- “Damsel” by Elana K. Arnold
- “The Duff” by Kody Keplinger
- “Empire of Storms” by Sarah J. Maas
- “Exit Here” by Jason Myers
- “Forbidden” by Tabitha Suzuma
- “Forever” by Judy Blume
- “Forever for a Year” by B.T. Gottfred
- “Haunted” by Chuck Palahniuk
- “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi
- “House of Earth and Blood” by Sarah J. Maas
- “House of Sky and Breath” by Sarah J. Maas
- “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover
- “Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts)” by L.C. Rosen
- “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” by Malinda Lo
- “Living Dead Girl” by Elizabeth Scott
