Florida school district sued after banning popular, award-winning children's book
LAKE COUNTY, Fla. - Tango — a children's book about two male penguins who adopted, hatched, and raised a penguin — is the face of a major lawsuit filed in Lake County, Florida.
The suit, filed on June 20 by the authors of the book and a Florida family, alleges that the Lake County School District "deprived" children of access to Tango for students from Kindergarten through third grade because of Florida's HB 1557, also known as The Parental Rights in Education Act passed in 2022.
The bill prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.
Since then, Florida has also passed HB 1069 which expands on HB 1557 extending the school grades from prekindergarten to eighth grade.
In April, the Florida Board of Education approved a ban on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades through high school in response to a proposal from the DeSantis administration.
RELATED:
- College Board to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: We're not changing our AP courses to meet new education laws
- Florida teachers could lose licenses for not following 'Parental Rights in Education' law
The lawsuit alleges that the restriction of Tango violates the first amendment of the Constitution — by discriminating based on content and viewpoint, it infringes the author's right to freedom of expression.
The family and authors believe Tango was restricted for "illegitimate, narrowly partisan, and political reasons," court records show. They're also seeking to return Tango to Lake County school libraries and to make the book accessible to students of all ages in Lake County public schools by the 2023-24 school year.
Both plaintiffs are seeking a declaratory judgment against HB 1069, making it unconstitutional and unenforceable since the law is too vague, so it cannot be enforced.
They're also seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting the district from enforcing HB 1557 to require the removal or restriction of materials in public school libraries, or in the alternative, a permanent injunction prohibiting the school district from enforcing HB 1557 in any manner.