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Group asking for 19 more books to be pulled from school libraries
Moms 4 Liberty Brevard is working to have 19 books pulled off the shelves in school libraries across the county, saying they are not suitable for students.
3/23/2022 - Moms 4 Liberty Brevard is working to have 19 books pulled off the shelves in school libraries across the county, saying they are not suitable for students.
"These books specifically violate Florida statute so Florida law says that you cannot have pornographic materials in the schools," said Ashley Hall with Moms 4 Liberty Brevard. "They have sexually explicit passages that detail sexual encounters. There are very violent rapes in some of the books"
At Tuesday night’s Brevard County School Board Meeting, board member Jennifer Jenkins spoke up saying this is ridiculous.
"These are only available in our high schools for our high school students for ages recommended for these books," Jenkins said, addressing the school board before calling the group out. "You do not get to wear a shirt with the word ‘liberty’ on it while you’re practicing and advocating censorship. And you don’t get to do it for anybody else’s children. I don’t care Mr. Susin, you can huff and puff all you want," Jenkins said.
School board member Katye Campbell said she looked through some of the excerpts with which Moms 4 Liberty takes issue.
"Just to be honest, my eyeballs and own conscience was seared from reading some of the things I was reading," Campbell said. "To quote the old Supreme Court Justice, ‘I can’t give you a description of pornography, but I know it when I see it and I know it when I saw it.’"
School board member Cheryl McDougall said it’s all subjective.
"I think it’s different for different people -- what they believe is pornographic or upsetting to them," McDougall said.
The Brevard County School Board is not making any decisions on the 19 books Moms 4 Liberty is calling into question. However, they are looking into changing the policy into how books are pulled off shelves, which is part of curriculum. Instead of having a committee at each individual school that has the book in question on the shelf review the book and make a decision, they are going to make it so that if a book is found inappropriate in one school, it’s inappropriate in all.
They will hold a meeting sometime soon to figure out the logistics of how to make that happen.
This is the list of books Mom 4 Liberty says are inappropriate for school libraries:
- Damsel by Elana K. Arnold
- Forever by Judy Blume
- Lucky by Alice Sebold
- Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
- Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth
- Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold
- Sold by Patricia McCormick
- This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
- This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki
- What Girls are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
- A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
- Crank by Ellen Hopkins
- Infandous by Elena K. Arnold
- Push by Sapphire
- The Haters by Jesse Andrews
- The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed
- Tilt by Ellen Hopkins
- Triangles by Ellen Hopkins
- Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
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