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Florida Parents Sue DeSantis Administration Over Book Ban Law
One of the plaintiffs said the Republican-authored law "is an attempt to steal important decisions away from parents."
Jun 06, 2024
Parents of students in Florida public schools sued the state's Board of Education on Thursday over a Republican-authored law allowing school district parents and residents to object to reading materials and force their removal from classrooms and libraries.
Three Florida parents joined the lawsuit, which was filed on their behalf by Democracy Forward, the ACLU of Florida, and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The complaint argues that the law, signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year, benefits only parents who "hold the state's favored viewpoint: agreement with removing books and other material from schools, and disagreement with (and therefore seeking review of) decisions to retain books and other material."
"Parents who seek to retain materials, a viewpoint disfavored by the state, are excluded from the state review process," the complaint states. "Because H.B. 1069 and its implementing regulations provide a benefit—access to the state review process and the corresponding opportunity to petition the state through an administrative system that can provide a remedy—differently depending on a parent's perspective, they violate the First Amendment's ban on viewpoint discrimination, and should be invalidated."
Stephana Ferrell, one of the parent plaintiffs, said in a statement Thursday that the law "is an attempt to steal important decisions away from parents and allows those with a strong desire to withhold critical information on a variety of age-relevant topics to decide what books our kids have access to."
Ferrell joined the lawsuit after her request to review a decision by her child's school district to remove a book was denied. H.B. 1069 "requires sex ed programs to teach that sex is determined by reproductive function at birth and is binary and unchangeable and to use only materials approved by the state Department of Education," the ACLU of Florida explains.
"The state of Florida should not be able to discriminate against the voices of parents they disagree with," Ferrell added. "I deserve an equal voice in my child's education as any other parent."
Under DeSantis' leadership, Florida has banned books more aggressively than any other U.S. state in recent years. According to PEN America's latest report, 3,135 book bans were recorded across 11 school districts in fall of 2023.
"In Collier County, Florida, one book about sexual violence, Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr, was removed under H.B. 1069," PEN noted. "The law makes it easier to pull a book that 'depicts or describes sexual conduct' from school shelves; because of the lack of clarity around how to implement the law, the book was banned despite the fact that the rape at the center of the narrative is never directly described."
Samantha Past, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida, said Thursday that the state "has become a national leader in book banning, garnering mass attention for the unprecedented number of books that have been removed from our public schools."
"A review process that is available only to parents with certain viewpoints violates the First Amendment," said Past. "Denying parents an appropriate avenue to challenge censorship is undemocratic, and stifling viewpoints the state disagrees with is unlawful. Ultimately, these actions perpetuate the statewide attack on members of the Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ communities in an attempt to erase them from our history books."
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2 Million Children, Parents Set to Lose Food Aid Unless Congress Acts Now
"Republicans are refusing to fully fund the programs families desperately need, and now 2 million new parents, babies, and children could pay the price," warned one advocate.
Jan 17, 2024
As U.S. lawmakers finalize this year's government funding bills amid yet another shutdown threat, progressive advocates on Wednesday warned that Congress must act immediately to ensure the uninterrupted flow of food aid from a key program on which millions of children and their parents depend.
Advocates including U.S. Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) rallied outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Wednesday to implore lawmakers to pass a clean budget without cuts to programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP).
"Programs like WIC, TANF, and SNAP are essential tools for ending poverty and hunger. But instead of helping Democrats expand these programs and deliver for working families, Republicans are constantly working to CUT them in favor of tax breaks for the wealthy," Jayapal said on social media. "It's shameful."
Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.)
warned that "Republicans are forcing us to the brink of a shutdown for the third time in four months," and that "shutdowns don't affect the donor class, but they're devastating for service members who need their paychecks, moms who need WIC to feed their kids, and families trying to heat their homes."
The group ParentsTogether Action specifically warned of threats to WIC, which "ensures access to fresh and healthy food and formula, breastfeeding support, and healthcare referrals for pregnant and postpartum parents and their kids up to age 5."
The group stressed:
It is critical that [congressional lawmakers] meet President [Joe] Biden's emergency request to fully fund WIC, and honor a long-standing commitment to ensure WIC is able to serve every low-income family who seeks assistance. If they fail to do so by January 19, the program will face a roughly $1 billion shortfall in 2024, which would require states to reduce WIC participation. Up to 2 million eligible young children and pregnant and postpartum adults with low incomes could be turned away by September, resulting in wait lists for the first time in decades.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)—which runs WIC via the Food and Nutrition Service—the program served approximately 6.3 million parents and children each month during fiscal year 2022, including nearly 40% of all infants in the United States. More than half of all U.S. newborns are eligible for WIC benefits.
A 2023 ParentsTogether Action survey revealed that:
- 64% of WIC recipients would have been unable to afford necessary formula to feed their infants without the program;
- 52% of recipients would have been unable to afford enough food for themselves;
- 75% of beneficiaries said the program helped them afford nutritious foods that they would not have otherwise been able to purchase; and
- 35% of those receiving benefits said they would not have had the support necessary to breastfeed their children.
As Stacie Sanchez Hare, director of No Kid Hungry Texas, argued Wednesday in an an opinion piece in The San Antonio Express News, the threat to WIC "comes at the worst possible time," as "the latest USDA report on food insecurity in the United States showed more than 13 million children are living with hunger—a 44% increase in a single year."
That's roughly 1 in 5 children in the U.S., with Black, Latino, rural, and single-parent households disproportionately affected.
"Republicans are refusing to fully fund the programs families desperately need, and now 2 million new parents, babies, and children could pay the price," said ParentsTogether Action executive director Ailen Arreaza. "If Congress doesn't act immediately, new parents struggling to buy food and formula for their families will be turned away."
"Congress cannot abandon pregnant people, new parents, and newborn babies and allow them to go hungry," Arreaza added. "They must fully fund WIC without delay."
Last year saw the ignominious end of a yearslong trend of declining hunger in the U.S., an improvement due largely to federal policies like the expanded child tax credit and universal school meals. The expiration—or Republican blockage—of pandemic-era food programs fueled a resurgence of hunger across the nation.
"With rising food costs and increased program participation—and with data showing that funding WIC bolsters our local economy—it is more critical than ever that we also strengthen WIC to provide vital nutrition, formula, and breastfeeding support for pregnant women, postpartum moms, infants, and toddlers in our communities," wrote Holladay, Utah resident Miriam Belgique in a Wednesday letter to The Salt Lake Tribune.
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Majority of US Parents Think Public Library Book Bans Infringe on Their Rights
"This report sheds light on the perceptions of parents regarding public libraries and the current issues they face," said John Chrastka, EveryLibrary Institute executive director.
Sep 27, 2023
As the right-wing book-banning movement justifies its crusade against U.S. libraries and classrooms with claims of "parental rights," survey data released Wednesday shows that 74% of parents agree or somewhat agree that book bans for public libraries infringe on their right to make decisions for their children.
"This report sheds light on the perceptions of parents regarding public libraries and the current issues they face," said EveryLibrary Institute executive director John Chrastka, whose think tank and professional network partnered with the website Book Riot for a survey conducted this month, as the 2023-24 academic year got underway.
"Together with Book Riot, we are dedicated to empowering libraries to provide exceptional services that meet the unique needs of parents," Chrastka continued. "The results of this survey can be used to improve library services and address parents' concerns, ultimately leading to better experiences at the library for parents and their children."
"Our ultimate goal is to foster an open dialogue around these issues and to support libraries and their users in navigating this challenging landscape."
EveryLibrary Institute and Book Riot aimed to "gather insights from parents and guardians about their opinions on book bans; their trust in libraries and their understanding of librarians' book selection process; and their opinions on sensitive subjects in children's books, such as sex, LGBTQ+ characters and themes, race, and social justice issues."
The organizations found that 92% of respondents feel their children are safe at the library, 67% believe that "banning books is a waste of time," and 58% think librarians should be primarily responsible for what is available at a public library—even though 53% do not know how librarians decide what works should be in a collection.
Additionally, 87% of respondents agree or somewhat agree that "characters in books should be diverse and reflect multiple communities," 82% support teens having access to content on "controversial subjects and themes," 67% believe libraries should carry children's books that discuss topics such as racism and sex, and nearly 61% think collections should include kids' titles with LGBTQ+ characters and stories.
Respondents also want a role in decision-making: 95% believe parents should be involved in helping their children decide what to read; 90% agree or somewhat agree that they should make decisions about what their child reads; and 53% think parent groups should be involved in collection development choices.
Two-thirds of respondents said "no" when asked if their child has ever been uncomfortable with a book they checked out, and about the same share said "no" when asked if a book their child checked out made them, the parent, uncomfortable.
"By gathering insights from parents, we hope to generate a body of informative and thought-provoking material that sheds light on the complex issues surrounding book bans and censorship," said Book Riot's Kelly Jensen. "Our ultimate goal is to foster an open dialogue around these issues and to support libraries and their users in navigating this challenging landscape."
The findings follow a pair of reports from last week that highlighted right-wing efforts to ban books in libraries and schools.
As of August 31, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom documented 695 attempts this year to remove a total of 1,915 titles from public and school libraries—an increase from last year, which broke the overall record for book challenges since data collecting began over two decades ago.
During the 2022-23 academic year, PEN America recorded a 33% increase in book bans at K-12 public schools from 2021-22. The group tracked 3,362 instances, which cut off student access to 1,557 unique titles. Over 40% of bans occurred in Florida, where public education is under attack from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 presidential candidate.
"Those who are bent on the suppression of stories and ideas are turning our schools into battlegrounds, compounding post-pandemic learning loss, driving teachers out of the classroom, and denying the joy of reading to our kids," said PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel. "By depriving a rising generation of the freedom to read, these bans are eating away at the foundations of our democracy."
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