The State Should Not be Banning Books

The title of this blog is the one that the News-Press gave to Guest Opinion on Sunday. It really doesn’t reflect the thesis of the piece.

The backstory on this essay comes from my analysis of a list of rejected titles from my school district. This list was pulled from the program used by teachers to submit books for review.

I was shocked…not really…when I looked at the reasons given for rejecting over 550 titles. Contrary to the expressed goals of the DeSantis GOP in Florida, only 15% of titles were rejected for sexual content. The rest were rejected for more mundane reasons. The book needed further review. The book was considered an adult level read. There were problems with the ISBN numbers, or the book information submitted to the reviewer.

In some cases, the books needing further review, or having incomplete information were well known works. Howard Zinn’s People’s History…come on! We know why that was rejected! Moby Dick was rejected because the ISBN was wrong. I mean, it’s Moby Dick. You don’t even have to read it. You can watch the movies!

Regardless, the list and the rationales given for rejection are proof positive that the state does not have competency, let alone the legitimate authority, to vet books.

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I attended Dr. Spiro’s workshop on the Lee County School District’s policy for complying with Florida’s draconian book banning law. Dr. Spiro was clear in emphasizing that his team’s focus was in satisfying the parameters of the law. The law, HB1467, is confusing and poorly worded, so it is no surprise that this should lead to confusing policy.

My confusion, shared with parents, educators, and advocates, had to do with the subjective definition of terms like “pornographic,” “sexually explicit,” “sexual content.” I have been involved in free speech movements since I was a high school student at Riverdale 40 years ago. The argument has never changed. How can we objectively assess a subjective standard to create clear policy? Is the Biblical story of Lot being sexually assaulted by his daughters (GEN 19:30-38) “sexually explicit?” Who gets to make that decision? In all these years I have never heard a satisfactory answer.

Click here to read the rest of the piece at the News-Press.com (Go to article)