Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/b><\/a><\/p>\nBut some parents and advocacy groups are questioning whether the state should have the final say over what books are allowed in schools \u2014 including in Broward County.<\/p>\n
A parent who spoke with Local 10\u2019s Roy Ramos on Thursday with believes families should have input, and that local reviews should take place before books are removed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will remove these 55 books,\u201d said Stephana Ferrell, a parent and director of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, responding to the state\u2019s recent directive.<\/p>\n
The Department of Education\u2019s list bans 55 titles from public school libraries statewide. Ferrell said the move overrides local input.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery district basically got that message that those 55 books violate the law according to the state. It doesn\u2019t matter if local community standards say no, these books are okay for certain grades and we believe them to fit our community standards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Local 10 obtained a copy of the banned list. Some of the titles were described by the state as pornographic and unsuitable for children. <\/p>\n
Among them: Choke, This Book Is Gay, Forever, and Breathless. <\/p>\n
Portions of these books contain graphic content, including descriptions of male genitalia, sexual acts and intercourse \u2014 some of which were too explicit to air on television.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are saying we can remove these books based on experts alone and it doesn\u2019t matter what the literary value is,\u201d Ferrell said. \u201cThey are making the argument that our school library are government speech and they can decide what is appropriate or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under current Florida law, parents may challenge books in their school district. Those challenges are then reviewed by a committee to determine whether the content is inappropriate.<\/p>\n
Ferrell argues the state is bypassing that process entirely.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that you have to review these books in their entirety to determine whether or not the intent of the work is to sexually excite the reader,\u201d she added. \u201cThere is no opportunity for local parents to get involved. \u201cNone of it matters. The state has decided for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Broward County schools were given until Tuesday to comply with the directive and remove the books.<\/p>\n
The list currently includes 55 titles, but critics believe more will be added.<\/p>\n
Local 10 has reached out to Broward County Public Schools for comment on the state\u2019s order. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The Florida Department of Education has identified more than 50 books it says are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":127298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-127297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114989500032749634","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}