Thread by @JuddLegum

1. This man moved from New York to Florida a few months ago

Now he wants to ban 3600 BOOKS from the school libraries

And he's already made significant progress

Follow along if interested

🧵

2. This year, at least 102 books have been removed from the shelves of school libraries in Clay County Florida

Many of these books were pulled at the request of 1 man: Bruce Friedman

A conservative activist and longtime resident of New York, Friedman moved to Clay County in May

3. One of the books pulled from the shelves is The Girl From The Sea, an award-winning graphic novel.

The book is about a 15-year-old girl who develops romantic feelings for another girl.

The two girls hold hands and, at one point, share a kiss.

No sex. No nudity. No swearing

4. In an interview with Popular Information, Friedman described The Girl From The Sea as a book for "slightly post-pubescent little lesbians."

Friedman says he objects to the book being available because students are "not in school to learn how to be better lesbians."

5. The Girl From The Sea has been removed from Clay County school libraries because of a new policy, implemented in July, that requires books to be pulled as soon as a challenge has been properly filed.

Friedman has exploited this policy by flooding the district with challenges.

6. Popular Information has obtained dozens of Friedman's challenge forms through public information requests.

The forms are identical.

The reason for the request is to "PROTECT CHILDREN," the objectionable material is "INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT."

7. Friedman told Popular Information that, since June 30, he has "investigated between 5 and 10 thousand" books available in Clay County school libraries on "a very cursory level."

8. In an interview, Friedman acknowledged that he filed challenges over the summer WITHOUT READING THE CHALLENGED BOOKS.

Friedman said he has already filed more than 350 challenges.

9. Eventually, Clay County began to reject Freidman's challenges as incomplete because they do not include any real explanation of the objection.

But Friedman is undeterred and, in the hopes of getting more challenges accepted, said he has started reading the books first.

10. Friedman says he is just getting started.

During a November 28 meeting of the Florida Department of Education Library Media Working Group, Friedman said he had compiled "a list of over 3,600 titles that I believe have concerning content."

11. Friedman demanded that the Department of Education "clean up this mess." If not, Friedman threatened to "perform 3,600 challenges and overwhelm your awful, awful procedures and policies."

12. Friedman acknowledged he is not aware of any children who were exposed to objectionable content at a school library and had it negatively impact their lives.

"I don't have to know them," Friedman said. "It's all of them."

MORE: popular.info/p/how-to-ban-3…

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14. The actual standard for library books is established by a new Florida law, HB 1467

It states that library books must be free of pornography, suited to student needs, and appropriate for the age group

15. Friedman said he did not believe The Girl From The Sea is pornographic. But, according to Friedman, it should be removed from the school library because it is "in very poor taste" and "sets a terrible example for our children, straight or gay."

16. According to Friedman, the book promotes "promiscuity" and "pre-marital sex" when "we are supposed to be promoting abstinence."

Friedman cited the "Parental Rights Act," also known as the "Don't Say Gay" law, to justify these objections.

17. The Parental Rights Act, however, prohibits classroom instruction of elementary students about sexuality and gender. It does not apply to library books.

18. Despite this confusion about the legal standard, Friedman and others have already been able to PERMANENTLY remove dozens of books from Clay County school libraries.

Here's how it works.

popular.info/p/how-to-ban-3…

19. Starting this year, groups like No Left Turn in Education began challenging library material en masse. School officials are fearful.

Since March, the county librarians have not been able to purchase any new material -- or even order new copies of books already on shelves

20. Under Clay County's July 2022 policy, any challenge should be reviewed by a District Curriculum Council, a rotating panel of school officials. But when challenges from Friedman and others started flooding in, the leadership of Clay County schools handled things differently

21. According to Julie Miller, the chair of the Clay County Education Association Media Committee, were pressured to determine if the books were eligible to be "weeded" or "deselected."

22. The librarians were also reminded that, under Florida law, they could potentially be held personally liable for making "pornographic" material available to minors.

23. This process resulted in Clay County librarians agreeing to weed or deselect 52 books from school libraries. These included acclaimed titles like Toni Morrison's Beloved, Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, and Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.

popular.info/p/how-to-ban-3…

24. Clay County schools have published a list of filed challenges, including those that librarians agreed to weed/deselect.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

25. In response, Miller and some of her colleagues in Clay County libraries have resolved not to weed out or deselect any additional challenged books in Clay County because they believe the system is being abused.

26. That means Friedman's accepted challenges are now subject to review. So far Friedman has lost four of the five books that have been reviewed.

Friedman has vowed to appeal all rejections to the district superintendent and, if necessary, to the Clay County School Board.

27. has reason to believe that his appeals may be successful. Friedman says that we "got rid of two people" on the board who opposed his efforts. He was "extremely supportive of two newly elected board members that I think sufficiently leaned towards protecting children."

28. The goal, according to Friedman, is to use Clay County library to "set a good example for what a clean library looks like" for Florida and the country. If anyone gets in his way, Friedman vowed to "run over them like a dead body."

popular.info/p/how-to-ban-3…

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