School library books under scrutiny by Brevard parents; others fear book bans
As debate over removing library materials becomes the latest front in the culture wars raging at school board meetings across Florida and the United States, parents and school board members in Brevard County are now taking up the cause.
The Brevard County chapter of Moms for Liberty posted a statement on Facebook Tuesday morning clarifying its position on library books, saying that while it doesn't support "banning books," it does want to remove inappropriate materials from school libraries.
“School libraries have been overlooked for far too long,” the organization wrote. “Our children can go into the school library and find explicit, pornographic and age inappropriate content without parents ever being the wiser."
Brevard County School Board Chair Misty Belford said Tuesday that she was provided a list of books that could contain sexually explicit content over the weekend, and had forwarded the list to the district for review.
"Staff is looking into the concerns that were brought to us, but we have a policy that states what is and isn't appropriate," Belford said. "If something is found to be appropriate within our policy, and someone still wants to challenge it, there's a process for them to go through requires a committee at the school."
At the same time. Belford said school board members have recently received several emails from parents concerned that books will be removed from libraries.
The Indian River County chapter of Moms for Liberty challenged 156 books in Indian River County School District libraries. Some of the challenged books include discussion of LGBTQ or racial identity and social justice. Others are books that include sexually explicit or violent scenes, including popular novels like Water for Elephants, Thirteen Reasons Why, The Color Purple, Of Mice and Men, The Bluest Eye and Beloved.
Last Monday, the Indian River County School Board voted to remove five books — “Blankets" by Craig Thompson, “Triangles" by Ellen Hopkins, “Girl 2 Girl" by Julie Peters, "Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda" by Alexis Siegel and "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn.
Belford said the list the district received was different, and much shorter, than the 156 books challenged in Indian River.
School Board member Matt Susin said he would like to see a system put in place by which parents can view books available for their children and opt out of materials they are concerned about. He also said some parents are concerned about books that they believe their children might have access to that are only read at higher grade levels.
“What I'm trying to do right now is find a way to identify which books are where, and then show it to them,” Susin said.
Susin said he doesn’t support removing books from school libraries outright and didn’t plan to bring it up at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Even if I wanted to, there wouldn’t be a majority vote for that,” Susin said.
A few members of Families for Safe Schools planned to protest outside a Tuesday evening school board meeting in opposition to removing books from BPS libraries.
More: Brevard Public Schools removes book with sexually explicit art from high school library
More: Florida Legislature passes 'Don't Say Gay' bill, sends to Gov. DeSantis for signature
In October, Brevard Public Schools removed a book that contained graphic illustrations of LGBTQ sexual experiences from the Melbourne High School library. The book, ”Gender Queer: A Memoir” is an illustrated memoir that depicts author Maia Kobabe’s reckoning with gender identity and sexuality.
A Brevard resident found the book on display at the school library and contacted BPS administration, who flagged the book in the district’s system so that it cannot be purchased again.
The discovery of that book raised concerns from parents, many of whom have criticized BPS for allowing the book into its library collections in the first place.
BPS spokesman Russell Bruhn said media specialists at school libraries received additional training after the book was removed. The district has an online form parents can use to contest questionable library materials.
Bailey Gallion is the education reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallion at 321-242-3786 or bgallion@floridatoday.com.