Imagine you’re in a 7th grade Civics class in Florida.

You must prove you understand the “ancient and religious influences” on the United States.

Below is an actual assessment question.

What’s your answer and why? Did you get it right?

Vetoed arts funding for children’s programs.

Third year demanding publishers remove information in Math, History, Science textbooks.

And the state NEVER approved Reproductive Health curriculum during the 23/24 SY (as HB1069 requires before it can be taught).

#BasicEd

https://twitter.com/flfreedomread/status/1809369989004120579

Meanwhile…

Communism education is approved for Kindergarten.

U.S. History includes the biblical influences on our Constitution and how civic virtue requires religion. It also teaches that enslavement offered personal benefits to those that were enslaved…

O’Reilly wants an investigation to find the responsible party, but we’ve already done the work.

It was an honest effort by a compliant district to “follow the law.”

Both of his books have descriptions of sexual conduct in them.

thehill.com/homenews/state…

https://twitter.com/flfreedomread/status/1746287485691338996

The Board & Supt called for an internal review of the library to ensure compliance with the law.

The guidance from the state is materials available to student must not contain depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct unless they are required by statute or standard.

“During a hearing in Tallahassee, the Trump-appointed judge asked a representative of Florida AG Ashley Moody's office if, for example, the state believed an official could selectively remove school library books written by Democrat politicians…” tallahassee.com/story/news/pol… “…Attorney Bridget O'Hickey replied in the affirmative. If Floridians didn't like it, she added, they could vote that official out.”

Thank you @DouglasSoule for this reporting.

This is NOT a culture war. This is an attack on our civil liberties.

When the law isn’t controlling enough for the FLBOE, they ask special interest groups to show support at their meetings to expand the scope of the law to vote in anti-freedom “rules.”

This is a clear example of coordination and could be a violation of FLCA’s non-profit status. FLCA was founded by people who were part of DeSantis' Education Advisory Committee in 2018. This committee played a role in passing a law in 2017 that allowed not only parents but also any citizen to suggest changes to school curricula.

Let’s chat about the chilling effect on instruction, classroom discussion, and what’s available in the library for self-selection thanks to the rules that were passed yesterday related to standards and principles. The African American History standards were aged-up, watered-down, and intentionally lacking or misleading.

Many think, it’s ok, classroom discussion and supplemental materials will fill in the blanks, but wait…

Last week the FLDOE sent out the memo for the expansion of HB1557 to all preK-12.

As a reminder, it was this rule change (which was not in effect yet for grades 4-12) that the Hernando BM used as the basis for her complaint to the FLDOE about Ms. Barbee.

info.fldoe.org/docushare/dswe… “A complaint is legally sufficient if it contains ultimate facts that show a violation has occurred as provided in s. 1012.795 and defined by rule of the State BOE. Districts will now need to report violations of this amendment to the Office of Professional Practices Services.”

“I am shocked to discover that America has such an attachment to ignorance. I thought we were better than this…Well, we’re not. So we have to deal with it. We have to fight back. And then we have to continue to tell the truth.” ⁦@levarburton⁩ latimes.com/california/sto… “A person who has the control of the narrative has control over how you will or will not be remembered as part of the historical record,” Burton said. “And so this is really a battle for truth. It’s a battle for reality. It’s a battle for control.”

Has the man put out a decree forcing the removal of any one book? No.

Have there been prohibitions on student library access in FL?

Yes. The FLDOE collected (some) of that data in February, and passed a rule today to receive an annual list of removed/restricted books.

https://twitter.com/azi/status/1661507724968972290

Also, look what happened to Flamer by @MikeCurato in Volusia schools. A committee voted to keep the book on HS shelves. Then, DeSantis included the book in his March “hoax” presser.

Removed districtwide. Access denied.

orlandosentinel.com/2023/05/24/flo…

FLDOE approved rule language to meet the HB1467 annual censorship reporting req.

We saw a test run of how this list will be used to pressure removals in Mar.

⁦@lesliepostal⁩ reports how this statewide list could impact students in the years ahead. orlandosentinel.com/2023/05/24/flo… Most of Volusia’s reviewers of Flamer found the language realistic & the book well-done.  The committee members, who included district educators, parents and community members, voted 7-1 to keep it in high school libraries, with some viewing as appropriate for 8th graders, too.

Miami-Dade met in April to review 5 books: THE ABCs OF BLACK HISTORY, CUBAN KIDS, COUNTRIES IN THE NEWS: CUBA, THE HILL WE CLIMB, and LOVE TO LANGSTON

All books were challenged for CRT or “gender theory” by the same person in March 2023. The review of all five books resulted in four of the five being retained for the middle school level, with THE ABCs OF BLACK HISTORY clearly being moved out of its intended age group.

You can see the book in full at the read aloud below.

Book bans have been recorded in at least 32 states.

Please don’t assume this is a “red state” issue.

When it came for us in FL in 2021, it was predominantly two titles. Now, it’s over 1100. edweek.org/teaching-learn… Instead of taking responsibility for the chilling effect their vague laws have (that wrap up books about Roberto Clemente, films on Ruby Bridges, and statues like David), they call that censorship an “overreaction” that was corrected after being called out (by us, not them).

Cuando los libros desaparecen

The voices of our own ⁦@JenCousinsFL⁩ and ⁦@raeganmiller⁩ contributed to this piece as well as ⁦@ashleyhopeperez⁩ and ⁦@PENamerica⁩ Nadine Farid Johnson. univision.com/especiales/not… ¿Qué le diría a los políticos que apoyan las objeciones a libros?

—Les pediría que se detuvieran a pensar en el daño que están haciendo. Los niños están siendo perjudicados por todo esto….

Confessions from a FL Teacher: After learning an excerpt from THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK was challenged in her school’s curriculum for being age inappropriate, this teacher shared a common note of exhaustion.

The attacks on their personal library collections are unnecessary…. We shared this yesterday with FL legislators as we referenced HB1069 and SB1320 which would add teachers’ personal libraries to the bureaucratic process of our taxpayer funded media centers.

It restricts the ability for parents/teachers the get the right book to the right child.

Monday Senator Yarborough explained the language around “age appropriate” for HS did not impact student groups, yet OCPS cancelled a GSA event in D3 after the M4L SB Member complained about the parent-approved, after school event.

OCPS Legal knows this is unconstitutional. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… It seems what @ShevrinJones was told on Monday is NOT what is being practiced by @EducationFL

Today @Clay_Yarborough used the Gov’s inaccurate censorship numbers to back up his terrible SB1320.

A quick visit to the St. John’s website would reveal the 19 number is not correct.

Removals are prohibitions. Restrictions are prohibitions. Prohibitions are bans at school. The Republicans chose to ignore the impacts currently being felt by our students in their schools and instead pretended it’s 2022 all over again and we don’t know what topics they mean to target when they say “sexual orientation and gender identity” are inappropriate for PreK-8.

We just posted the weekly update to our statewide censorship attempts tracking. We are over 2000 since Oct 2021, with nearly 1000 unique titles questioned.

⁦@MikeCurato⁩ FLAMER had 2 different committees in 2 red counties decide to retain this week. fftrp.org/florida_censor… When committees have the opportunity to meet and discuss a book in its entirety, they will more than likely vote against government censorship.

They follow the patriotic tradition of considering all patrons that access the library, not just themselves or their own students.

Two books were reviewed & retained in @volusiaschools - I AM NOT YOUR PERFECT MEXICAN DAUGHTER & GLASS.

The review process is vital to ensuring a community decision is made on the appropriateness of a book. It ensures citizens are not subject to undue government censorship. The night before last the School Board reviewed their library policy and discussed the power to remove books. Their attorney cautioned against removing the opportunity for public/parent input.

New addition of “sexually oriented material” would allow for broad removals. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Last night we went before @OCPSnews & called them out for AGAIN removing books w/o following policy. This time it was TRICKS & IDENTICAL by @EllenHopkinsLit & Sara Gruen’s WATER FOR ELEPHANTS. We found out about the forced removals prompted by M4L SBM via weeding reports. After receiving a canned response by the new Supt that basically condoned the SBM using her authority to influence what’s available in the library, we sent an explanation of how important it is not to corrupt the weeding & deselection process to promote soft censorship.

Last night we had more School Board Meetings around FL. Again, community members in Pinellas County showed up to defend students’ rights in education.

Let’s start with the passion expressed by our teachers. @BrandtRobinson kicks these off. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Next, mental health and medical professionals spoke out about the benefits to young people of books that address complex and sometimes hard life experiences. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

It was a long week in the “free” state’s censorship news. Did you catch it all?

We’ll repost the stories you need to know to fight censorship here in the thread below for you.

#FreeTheBooks #FReadom #DeSantisDestroysFlorida Here is @JuddLegum story that reveals DeSantis’ lawyers have gotten away with arguing one thing in court so HB1557 is not infringing on constitutional rights while the FLDOE does what could otherwise be considered unconstitutional.

https://twitter.com/flfreedomread/status/1610983231230287873