TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — On Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Tampa to expose what he calls a “book ban hoax.”
The governor took to the podium, armed with examples of what has been deemed explicit content.
The press conference began with a five-minute video showing books with sexually explicit content that could be found in Florida schools, including “Flamer” and “Gender Queer.”
Many of these books were reported by parents, and then ultimately removed.
“I just think parents when they’re sending their kids to school, they should not have to worry about this garbage being in the schools,” DeSantis said.
According to DeSantis and his education commissioner, the state isn’t banning books—they’re removing porn.
“Removing clear instances of pornography and sexually explicit materials, often within arms reach of our youngest kids, is not book banning,” said Florida Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr.
In Florida, school districts are responsible for determining what’s appropriate. Pursuant to a law passed last year, all books must now be reviewed by a specialist. Parents can object.
After the process plays out, any book that has been removed must be reported to the Florida Department of Education.
Thus far, according to the DOE, 175 books have been removed in Florida.
The majority, 151 books, were reportedly found to contain pornographic material.
“Even if this pornography comes in cartoon form, it’s still not okay for our kids,” Diaz said.
“I think reasonable minds can agree that inappropriate books should not be in our libraries,” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat in Miami.
However, according to Jones, it’s bigger than that. He says some books that are important to the Black community have also been removed.
“Toni Morrison, Letters from a Birmingham Jail, books about Rosa Parks, these are books that are being banned from out of some school districts,” Jones said.
8 On Your Side is in the process of looking into titles Jones mentioned.
“The truth is that there is a narrative that unfortunately that the Governor and the Republicans have started that has given them this excuse to ban books because they believe that it is indoctrinating students or banning books because it’s pushing an ideology and in turn they’re banning books of significance,” Jones said.
Now, school districts face a looming deadline. They must give the Department of Education a list of all books that have been removed by June 30.
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