CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — The video attached to this story is from a previous, related report.
Already the focus of national and international scorn for banning more books than any other school district in the country, Clay County is poised to double down.
At a School Board workshop Tuesday, members discussed expanding the state’s definition of prohibited content, which has already led to the purge of 181 titles from district shelves.
Decrying those 181 books as “filthy, filthy pornography,” Board Member Michele Hanson said additional “filters” will help the district ban books that currently fall outside of the state’s rigid new restrictions.
“These non-pornographic materials do not belong on our shelf,” Hanson said.
An example she cited was “Herione,” a gritty novel about teen athlete prescribed opioids after an injury who develops a drug addiction. The book includes realistic descriptions of drug use and profanity. “It has the F-word 45 times,” she noted.
Hanson wants to remove books that are either not age-appropriate or are difficult to comprehend. Pointing to her list of titles deserving removal, she said, “There's a book in here that I read and couldn't even understand. And I am smart.”
In her nearly 25-minute presentation, Hanson also defended the district’s actions.
“We have done a bang-up job,” Hanson told the board. “We need to spread the word that what we are doing is right. We need to help educate people who are calling us liars and book banners. And we need to do it louder than they are doing it.”
Chief Academic Officer Roger Dailey presented a list of additional “filters,” created with a group of "very diverse community members.” It would ban students through the 12th grade from obtaining books that include depictions of “aroused sexual organs,” “explicit descriptions of sexual acts” and “crude profanity (F-bomb, slang for genitalia, slang for sexual acts).”
Books for students 9-12 “may contain kissing,” however.
Dailey cautioned there will be “consequences” if board adopts additional restrictions. He called the county’s reputation “ignominious,” noting that although the district accounts for just 1.5% of Florida’s student population, it is home to 80% of the state’s book challenges.
Ninety-four percent of those come from a single man, according to the district. Clay County father and Moms For Liberty member Bruce Friedman began reading what he considers objectionable content aloud at board meetings, including author Alice Sebold’s description of her own violent rape as a teenager. (“He began to knead his fist against the opening of my vagina. Inserted his fingers into it, three or four at a time. Something tore...” Friedman began reading at the June 2022 board meeting, before his mic was cut.)
Dailey called Friedman’s book challenges – which include the “Captain Underpants” series and a book based on the PBS children’s character “Arthur”-- “erratic and inconsistent.” He praised district staff for reviewing hundreds of challenged books, and said they will have worked through the entire backlog by Oct. 12.
But he cautioned of backlash if the board implements additional “filters.”
“The level of media attention that we’re getting now will be magnified significantly,” Dailey said. “I don’t know that we’ve ever had anything -- nothing of which I’m aware of -- in this county’s history, that will bring the spotlight down like that will.”
He continued, “Despite whatever messaging we're able to do in Clay County Florida -- nationally and internationally the narrative will be ‘Book Bans by the Thousands.’”
Hanson audibly disagreed, interjecting, “Is that what we’re worried about? The narrative?” As for Friedman, she said, “He’s done us a great favor.”
Other board members offered varying degrees of support for additional rules.
Superintendent Dave Broskie noted, “you already have total parental control now. No student can check out a book without the express written permission of a parent.” He agreed there may still be items on bookshelves that some parent find objectionable, calling that “a no-win situation.”
Board Vice Chair Mary Bolla also referenced the required parental permission slips, saying she’s concerned about overstepping beyond that.
“I’m sitting back going, ‘Hold on, guys. It's my child. I'm the parent,'" Bolla said. "I just, I really – I’m having some anxiety about stepping on parental rights. Parents rights are huge.”
Board Member Erin Skipper indicated she would support additional book bans.
“We as mothers have to protect our children from the evils of the world,” Skipper said. “I know we all have different perspectives, but no child should -- the book “Heroine,” I mean, that was insane to me ... It shouldn't be on the shelves.”
Dailey reminded the board that some of the objectionable books mirror the experience of Clay County students, some of whom are “cohabitating with other families, rotating from couch to couch every night, having drugs and violence in their lives.”
He continued, “A lot of these educators feel like their students have these experiences, and that these stories speak to those experiences -- as cautionary tales or inspirational tales as ways to overcome those types of things. And that those children, even at very tender ages have experienced things that perhaps I've never experienced, you will never experience. ... What I've been told is [by teachers] is ‘I know my students. I need to provide something that more reflects their life experience.”
The district hasn’t bought new library books for two years because of a purchasing freeze.
The board plans to discuss the issue further at an October workshop.